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“Get Back, Ye HounM ” 

Frontispiece. 





































Grace Harlowe’s Overland 
Riders in the Yellowstone 
National Park 


By 

JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A.M. 

Author of The High School Girls Series, The College Girls Series, 
The Grace Harlowe Overseas Series, Grace Harlowe’s Over¬ 
land Riders on the Old Apache Trail, Grace Harlowe’s 
Overland Riders on the Great American Desert, Grace 
Harlowe’s Overland Riders Among the Kentucky 
Mountaineers, Grace Harlowe’s Overland 
Riders in the Great North Woods, Grace 
Harlowe’s Overland Riders in the 
High Sierras, etc., etc. 


Illustrated 


PHILADELPHIA 

HENRY ALTEMUS COMPANY 


Copyrighted, 1923, by 
Howard E. Altemus 




APR 21 1923 


PRINTED IN THE UNITED STATES OP AMERICA 


CONTENTS 


PAGE? 

Chapter I — Overlanders Get a Shock.11 

The arrival at Cinnabar. “It takes more than a sign 
to make a hotel.” The guide is missing. Stacy goes 
to look for Jake Coville and meets with a distressing 
experience. The stock car yields an amazing surprise. 
“Those are not our ponies!” cries Nora. 

Chapter II — The Wires Bring Bad News .22 

The mystery of the missing ponies. Overland Riders 
left without a guide or a horse. Hippy makes the 
telegraph wires “sing.” A fine display of temper. 
Lieutenant Wingate, in his bare feet, chases a telegraph 
messenger from camp. 

Chapter III — On the Road to Wonderland .... 28 
Emma Dean declines to kiss a horse. The Overland 
men go in search of new mounts. Hippy delivers an 
oration. Stacy avers that someone is always taking 
the joy out of life. Jim Badger engages himself to 
guide the party. 

Chapter IV — Unbidden Guests in Gamp .40 

Overland Riders are awakened by the fat boy’s yells. 
Grizzly bears invade the camp. Stacy shoots and 
misses. Park guards descend on the Overland camp in 
search of the “shooter.” “You are all under arrest!” 
announces Trooper White. 

5 





6 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter V — Stacy Gets Another Shock .49 

“Strike your camp!” orders the Park guard. Over¬ 
land Riders are arraigned before the commanding 
officer. Chunky admits that he missed the bear he 
shot at. “Fifty dollars!” gasps the fat boy. Tom 
Gray delivers a brief lecture. A scene that delighted 
and mystified. 

Chapter VI — The Infant Geyser Gets Busy .... 55 

iStacy is fascinated by the baby “spouter.” The fat 
•boy’s actions arouse the Overlanders’ suspicions. “He’s 
•done it! He’s done it! ” wails Nora. Stacy is enveloped 
In a cloud of steam as the “Infant Geyser” blows up. 

A thrilling message from Chunky. 

Chapter VII — In the Toils .66 

Overlanders learn that Stacy Brown is in jail. Emma 
thinks it will prove beneficial to the fat boy. Accused 
of blowing up the “Infant Geyser.” Elfreda Briggs 
appoints herself Stacy's lawyer, and gains some valuable 
information. 

Chapter VIII — Hippy Pays the Piper. 74 

Emma Dean objects to “killing the fatted calf.” 
Overlanders hold a family council and appoint Emma 
as the fat boy’s guardian. Stacy rebells. Chunky 
comes a cropper. Colonel Scott hears a familiar 
name. “I know you, young woman! I should say 
I do!” 

Chapter IX — Robbers Leave a Trail .83 

A robbery at the Springs Hotel excites the guests. 
Hippy and Grace investigate on their own account. 
Lieutenant Wingate loses the trail. “Even the bears 
have ears.” Grace forecasts a great surprise for the 
Overland Riders. 






CONTENTS 


7 


PAGE 

Chapter X — At It Again.97 

“ There’s no accountin' for bear,” declares Jim Badger. 
Grace and Hippy complimented on their keenness. 

Park guards are put on the trail of the thieves. A stroll 
among the steaming pools brings disaster. Stacy dis¬ 
appears from sight. 

Chapter XI — Stacy Gets into Hot Water .105 

“He isn’t very badly off or he couldn’t make a noise 
like that.” Rescued and laughed at. Emma regrets 
that the fat boy did not stay in until thoroughly done. 

An adventurous climb ahead of the Overlanders. 
Revolver shots and yells from Chunky disturb the 
sleeping camp. 

Chapter XII — “A High Crime” .110 

Night prowlers take away the fat boy’s “pants” and 
his money. Jim Badger takes a shot at the robbers. 

“I want my fifty cents,” wails Chunky. Thieves miss 
more than they get. Lieutenant Wingate saves his 
watch. 

Chapter XIII — The Heart of the Tempest .116 

Stacy not so full of scenery that he has no room for 
food. A hired man who wrote “pomes” comes to 
grief. Elfreda objects to a snoring Overlander. Two 
storms meet over the Overland camp. “Lie down, 
everyone!” 

Chapter XIV — Overtaken by Disaster .127 

Tents and campfire blow away. A bolt from the 
clouds stuns the Overland Riders. Lieutenant Wingate 
is strangely missing. A dizzy slide down the sloping 
rocks. “I reckon the mountain must have fallen on 
me.” The “laziest man in the Yellowstone.” 


Jf 







8 


CONTENTS 


PAGE 

Chapter XV — A Strange Experience .137 

Electric Peak affects the Overlanders peculiarly. 
Stacy’s heart “beats all.” Grace admits to feeling 
“queer.” “There’s something peculiar about this 
place,” cries Tom Gray. Stacy plunges over the 
edge of the mountain. 

Chapter XVI — A Mountain of Distress .145 

“He’s killed! He’s killed!” A rescue that is accom¬ 
plished with difficulty. Overland Riders conclude 
that they have had enough of the mysterious moun¬ 
tain. Jim Badger has news for his charges. “There’s 
been another robbery down to the Springs Hotel,” 
he tells them. 

Chapter XVII — Greasing the Geyser .155 

Suspiciously acting strangers spy on the Overland 
camp. Stacy suggests that they forget their troubles 
in food. The guide gives the fat boy a suggestion. 
Awed by “Old Faithful Geyser.” Bears hot on the 
trail of the fat boy. 

Chapter XVIII — Pajamas Float on High .169 

Tom and Hippy face the angry bears and play a trick 
on them. Stacy Brown, in trying to capture a cub, gets 
into difficulties. Laundry work is done in the geyser 
basin. The fat boy up to mischief. “Somebody help 
me get my ‘pants’!” wails the fat boy. 

Chapter XIX — Fish Cooked on the Hook .181 

The “Little Fountain” holds fast to Overland laundry 
things. Coyotes howl all night in the Geyser Basin. 

The Overlanders catch trout and cook them in a boiling 
spring. “I’ve just been making a monkey of you 
folks,” declares Stacy. 






CONTENTS 


9 


PAGE 

Chapter XX — Wonders of the Grand Canyon . . . 192 
The rougher the time the better the Overland Riders 
like it. Emma decides that there is nothing in the 
brain-food theory. “All girls are ’fraid cats,” declares 
Chunky. In a dash down the canyon Emma proves 
that they are not. 

Chapter XXI — The “Lion Tamer” Gets a Scare. . 202 
Stacy tells why he is not practicing' his profession. 
Overland chatter is interrupted by the arrival of a 
bear with cubs. The “Lion Tamer” dives to safety. 

The fat boy knocked out by the sweep of a g-iant paw. 

Chapter XXII — Hippy Scents a Mystery .212 

Signal whistles in the night. A mysterious prowler 
runs away. Badger drives the prowler away later in 
the evening. Hippy makes a discovery, the full 
meaning of which he is to learn later on. 

Chapter XXIII — Met with a Volley of Bullets. . 217 
Visitors call at the Overland camp. A disabled coach 
delays their departure. The blow of watching others 
eat almost kills Chunky. A cry of distress — a volley 
of shots. “There’s trouble afoot!” cries Lieutenant 
Wingate. 

Chapter XXIV — Trailing the Bandits .223 

“Cease firing! You’ll spoil my hat.” The Concord 
coach is held up by bandits. Hippy finds a clew. 

“If any person attempts to leave this camp I’ll shoot!” 

A blow on the jaw puts the coach driver to sleep. 
Bandits arrested upon Lieutenant Wingate’s disclosures. 





GRACE HARLOWE’S OVERLAND 
RIDERS IN THE YELLOW¬ 
STONE NATIONAL PARK 


CHAPTER I 

OVERLANDERS GET A SHOCK 

4( 'T TERE we are again,” cried Lieutenant 

B-1 Hippy Wingate. “ Cinnabar! All out 

for Cinnabar, the gateway to the great 
Yellowstone National Park. Get busy, you Over¬ 
landers, or you’ll be left.” 

“ Cinnabar! It sounds like something good to 
eat,” declared Stacy Brown. “ The town doesn’t 
look as if it could furnish much food worth while,” 
he added, peering from the car window as he 
munched an apple. 

“ Perhaps not for an appetite such as yours,” 
retorted Emma Dean. “Why don’t you try 
absent treatment? Just imagine that you have 
had a most satisfying meal, and in a few moments 
you will forget all about your hunger.” 

11 



12 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“We had to do that many times in France, 
did we not? ” laughed Grace Harlowe, turning to 
her companion, Elfreda Briggs. 

“ Not ‘ many times/ but most of the time,” 
agreed Elfreda. “ Alors! Let’s go!” 

Gathering up their belongings, the Overland 
Riders moved towards the exit of their Pullman 
car just as the North Coast Limited roared up 
to the station at Cinnabar, the point at which 
thousands of tourists stop off during the summer 
season to visit the Yellowstone National Park, 
now the destination of the Overlanders them¬ 
selves. A throng of tourists stepped down from 
the train to the long low platform in front of the 
little station. 

Among the first to leave the train were the 
Overland Riders — Grace Harlowe Gray and her 
husband, Tom Gray, in the lead. A few mo¬ 
ments later the train was rumbling away, envel¬ 
oped in a black cloud of smoke. 

Four-in-hand Concord coaches, old-fashioned 
but in good repair, to which handsome black 
horses were hitched, were drawn up to the plat¬ 
form to carry away the tourists. There was 
bustle and laughter and shouting and excitement 
among the tourists, in which the khaki-clad 
Overland Riders took no part, for they were 
experienced travelers now just starting out on 
their regular summer outing in the saddle. The 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


13 


Overlanders, however, were interested in the busy 
scene at the little station. The quaint little town 
with its wooden buildings built in irregular for¬ 
mation, like many other far western towns, sat 
in a vast amphitheater formed by surrounding 
mountain ranges. 

“ Come, girls,” urged Grace Harlowe. “ We 
must busy ourselves, for we have much to do. 
Tom, please inquire if our guide, Jake Coville, 
is here.” 

“ What concerns me most at the moment is 
where we are to eat,” spoke up Nora Wingate. 

“ I was about to ask the same question,” nodded 
Stacy Brown, more familiarly known to his 
companions as “ Chunky,” whose appetite had 
never been known to be fully appeased. 

“ There is a hotel sign just across the way,” 
volunteered Miss Briggs. 

“ It takes more than a sign to make a hotel,” 
observed Grace laughingly. “ That is especially 
true in this far western country, as we Riders have 
had ample evidence.” 

“ Let's go! No food is worse than poor food,” 
urged Stacy. 

“Yes. Let's do,” agreed Emma. 

“ No breakfast until we have unloaded and fed 
the ponies,” called Hippy Wingate. “ The ani¬ 
mals need more attention than we do. Come 
along.” 


14 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ They don’t need it so much as this animal 
does,” declared Chunky. 

“Feed the ponies; then we will think of food 
for ourselves,” was Hippy’s reply. “ Tom, what 
about the guide? ” 

“ I’ll find out.” Stepping over to the station 
agent, who was busy with a pile of trunks that 
had been unloaded from the Limited, Tom asked: 
“ Do you know where we may find Jake Coville? ” 

The agent, before replying, surveyed Tom from 
head to foot. 

“ I reckon you’ll find him at home.” 

“ Where is that, please? ” 

“ Next to the last house down the street, after 
you have turned to your left, first turn.” 

“ It is strange that he is not here to meet us,” 
observed Tom, turning away. 

“ Perhaps he is one of the independent kind 
that has to be asked,” suggested Nora. 

“ So are we,” interjected Stacy. 

“ Why doesn’t some one go fetch him? ” de¬ 
manded Emma. 

“ Tom will do so after we get the ponies out,” 
answered Grace. 

“ No, you folks take care of the ponies and leave 
Mr. Coville to me,” urged Stacy. “ I know how 
to handle these wild westerners.” 

“ After we have taken the animals out,” nodded 
Tom. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


15 


The party hurried down the platform to the 
stock car that the station agent pointed out to 
them, and that had been shunted over on the 
siding by an earlier train. In the freight house 
end of the station they found a plank gangway in¬ 
tended for use in unloading stock. The runway 
was not more than three feet wide, but this did 
not worry the Overlanders. Their ponies were 
used to traveling over narrow places and would 
walk over the narrow bridge as confidently as 
would the Overlanders themselves. 

While Tom, Hippy and Stacy were dragging 
the heavy planking over to the stock car a crowd 
of curious villagers gathered to witness the un¬ 
loading of the ponies. 

“ Troopers? ” questioned a native. 

“ Not exactly,” answered Tom Gray. 

“ Thought mebby you was a new cavalry 
company come to do patrol work in the Park. 
Heard there was a gang coming. Most of the 
regulars that was on duty in the Park went to 
France, and some of ’em ain’t come back.” 

“ Say, do we look like a gang? ” demanded 
Stacy Brown, turning on the speaker. 

“ Wall, I reckon you might.” 

“ Then again we might not,” retorted the fat 
boy. 

“ Come, Stacy! You aren’t lifting a pound,” 
rebuked Lieutenant Wingate. 


16 GRACE HARLOWE 




“ He never has,” reminded Emma Dean, 

“ And never will if he can get out of it/’ laughed 
Elfreda Briggs. 

“ Mebby he’s got all he kin do to lug himself 
around/’ suggested one of the villagers. 

Stacy eyed him narrowly. 

“ That never will bother you because your head 
is too light to overbalance you,” retorted the fat 
boy. 

“ Can you and Tom lift the gangway up? ” 
called Hippy, clinging to the closed car door. 

“ We can, but we won’t,” answered Stacy. 

“ Huh! I suppose I shall have to get down 
and help you,” grunted Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ You will if you wish to use the gangway 
to-day,” retorted Stacy. “ Don’t you reckon I’d 
better go look for Jake Coville? ” 

“Yes, yes, go on,” begged Tom Gray dis¬ 
gustedly. 

“ All right, I’ll go. Say, it’s a pity some? of you 
lazy village folks wouldn’t turn to and give us a 
hand. Never saw such an indifferent lot in my 
life.” 


“ Why should they, Stacy? They do not belong 
to our party,” answered Nora Wingate. 

“ Oh, there isn’t any reason, of course,” grum¬ 
bled the fat boy. 

“ Did you ever help anyone out? ” questioned 
Emma. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


17 


“ Oh, lots of times. I have been doing that all 
my life/^ answered Stacy, sauntering away to go 
in search of the guide who had failed to meet 
them. 

The girls offered to help put the gangway in 
place, but the two men would not permit them to 
do so. At this juncture the agent came out and 
offered his services, and a moment later the gang¬ 
way was in place. The station agent then opened 
the car door. 

“ There. Now you can get your stock out,” 
he said. 

Hippy took one amazed look at the interior of 
the car and uttered an exclamation. 

“ Here, here! What’s this? ” he cried. 

The Overlanders ran up the gangway and 
peered in. 

“For mercy’s sake!” cried Nora Wingate. 
“ Those are not our ponies.” 

The car, instead of holding the slim-limbed, 
sleek ponies of the Overland outfit, was filled 
with huge draft horses, such as one sees exhibited 
at county fairs in the east. 

“ Mr. Agent, they have dropped the wrong car 
here. These are not our animals,” declared Hippy. 

“ I can’t help that,” replied the agent. 

“Young man, you march right back to your 
office and send out a general alarm for one car of 
ponies missing, and tell your superiors that we 

\ IS - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 


18 


GRACE HARLOWE 


shall hold them responsible for the delivery of our 
animals before night to-day/’ warned Hippy. 
“ Get busy.” 

The agent said he could do nothing, but Hippy 
was of a different opinion, and led the agent to 
the telegraph office where the Overlander sent 
a peremptory message to the general superin¬ 
tendent. 

This done the Overland Riders began looking 
about for a place to eat and to spend the day and 
night. They finally found quarters at a hotel, 
but, after looking the place over, they decided 
to go into camp. Fortunately, all their equipment 
had been shipped as baggage, so, hiring a man 
and a wagon, they had the equipment drawn to 
the edge of the little town where they pitched 
their tents and began preparing camp, not know¬ 
ing how long it might be before they got their 
ponies. 

Many of the villagers followed the party out 
and observed the process of camp-making with 
keen interest. 

“ Government party? ” questioned the post¬ 
master. 

“ No,” answered Lieutenant Wingate shortly. 

“ We are out for a pleasure trip through the 
Park,” Grace informed him. 

“ Oh! Been out before, haven’t you? ” 

“ Yes, sir. A great many times. There comes 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


19 


Stacy. He looks disturbed about something/’ 
said Grace. 

“ That is because he thinks he has missed his 
breakfast/’ chuckled Emma Dean. 

“ What’s the matter, Stacy? ” called Nora. 
“We thought you were lost.” 

“ I was. Nobody seemed to know where you 
folks had gone. I’ve had an awful experience, 
worst I ever had in my life, and —” 

“ Did you find Coville? ” interrupted Tom 
Gray as he drove home a tent peg. 

“ Find him? I should say I did. Most dis¬ 
tressing thing you ever heard of. I know I shall 
never get over the shock that I got this day.” 

Stacy plainly was laboring under a severe nerve 
strain, as his companions discerned, and there¬ 
fore no one attempted to tease him. 

“ Tell us about it,” urged Grace gently. 

“ What’s the matter now? ” demanded Hippy 
Wingate, returning from the station. “ Didn’t you 
find Coville? ” 

“ Yes, I found him.” Stacy mopped the perspi¬ 
ration from his face with a sleeve. 

“ Then why is he not here attending to his 
business? ” demanded Hippy with some irritation. 

“ I’ll tell you the story, then you’ll understand,” 
answered Stacy soberly. “ I found the place 
where Coville lived and I was met at the door 
by a red-eyed woman who looked as if she had 


20 


GRACE HARLOWE 


been crying. I asked her if Jake was there and she 
said 1 yes ’ and burst into tears. Well, would 
you believe me, folks—” 

“ Oh, we will believe anything after this horse- 
car mystery,’' returned Hippy Wingate impa¬ 
tiently. 

“ I told her who I was and that Jake was to be 
our guide, and, what do you think—” 

“ Don’t stall. Get to the point,” urged Tom. 

“She said, 'He ain’t nobody’s guide now. 
Jake’s dead! ’ ” 

The Overland Riders gasped. 

“ Who — what — ” exclaimed Nora. 

“ Uh-huh. He passed out suddenly.” 

“ Oh, that is too bad,” cried the girls, their 
voices full of sympathy. 

“We hadn’t even heard that he was ill,” added 
Elfreda. 

“ He wasn’t — that is, not until yesterday when 
he got kicked in the head by a horse, and that 
was the last of him. But never so long as I live 
will I get over the shock,” muttered Stacy. 
“ Don’t talk to me. I guess I want to get away 
by myself and think,” added Stacy, sobered, 
deeply affected for the first time in his life. 

“We must do something for the family, pro¬ 
vided they need it,” suggested Grace. “ Any news 
from our missing horses, Hippy? ” 

“ Not a word. The railroad officials profess to 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


21 


know nothing about them and insist that the car 
we have is the car that went out with us when we 
left Denver.” 

“Oh, I hope we do not lose our wonderful 
ponies,” cried Elfreda. 

“ There’s no possibility of that,” replied Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate, “We may be delayed here for a 
few days waiting for the railroad people to 
straighten out the tangle, so let’s make the best 
of a bad situation and enjoy ourselves.” 

As later events proved, Hippy Wingate was not 
a true prophet, for the Overlanders were face to 
face with a mystery that would not be solved in 
many a day. Their summer’s outing had begun 
under the most unfavorable conditions of any 
summer journey they had ever undertaken. 


22 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER II 

THE WIRES BRING BAD NEWS 

Ct rT^HE question is, what shall we do for a 
guide? ” said Miss Briggs later in the 
JL afternoon, after they had finished the 
noon meal in their own camp. 

“ Unless we find our ponies we shall have no 
need of a guide,” answered Grace. “ Ponies are 
what we are most in need of at this stage of our 
journey.” 

“ We can walk, can’t we? ” spoke up Nora 
Wingate. 

A chorus of “ no’s ” greeted her suggestion. 

“ Why don’t you give the subject some ‘ absent 
'treatment,’ Emma? ” suggested Stacy Brown. 

“ I — I never tried it on a horse, and don’t 
know whether or not it will work,” stammered 
Miss Dean amid laughter. “ I’ll try it, if you 
wish. As a matter of fact, my instructor in mental 
treatment says that one can accomplish anything 
if one only has faith in his ability to do so.” 

“ Stacy, do you hear that? ” laughed Grace, 
smiling at the blinking fat boy. “ It might do 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


23 


wonders for your appetite. Would you like to 
have Emma try her new fad on you? ” 

“ Not on me/’ protested Chunky with emphasis. 
“ Let her try it on the horses. What’s the news, 
Uncle Hip?” he added, as Lieutenant Wingate 
sauntered into camp. 

“ None at all. The agent and the officials still 
insist that it is our car and our shipment of horses 
that lies on the siding over yonder. I have come 
back to you folks for a conference. What would 
you advise doing in the matter? ” 

“ I, for one, advise remaining right where we 
are until we get our ponies, even if it takes all 
summer,” suggested Emma, but no one gave the 
slightest heed to her advice. 

“ Hippy, have you seen the waybill? ” inquired 
Grace, who had been regarding Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate thoughtfully. 

“ The waybill? ” exclaimed Hippy. 

“ That carload of draft horses must weigh about 
a million pounds,” declared Stacy. 

“ I don’t mean ‘ weigh,’ I mean ‘ way,’ ” 
laughed Grace. 

“ That’s right, Hippy. Odd it hadn’t occurred to 
me,” nodded Tom. 

“ The waybill is the shipping orders for the rail¬ 
road by which conductors of trains are informed 
where the cars of their train are to be dropped off,” 
Grace informed her companions. “ This waybill 


24 


GRACE HARLOWE 


bears the number of the car and names its con¬ 
tents and destination. It might not be a bad idea 
to see what the waybill says. I don’t suppose the 
agent has examined it. If it is our car the mystery 
is too deep for me to solve/ 7 

“ Say, Brown Eyes, you have a wonderful head/ 7 
complimented Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Remarkable mentality, 77 agreed Stacy under 
his breath, giving Tom Gray a sidelong glance, but 
Tom merely laughed good-naturedly. 

Hippy said he would see the agent at once, and 
started at a brisk walk for the railway station. He 
returned an hour later. 

“ Well? 77 called Tom, when Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate was still some distance aw T ay. 

“ The car on the siding is not our car at all. 
Our waybill calls not only for a car from another 
road, but for a car with a wholly different number. 
That was a big suggestion, Grace, 77 added Hippy, 
smiling at her. 

“ What did you do about it? 77 inquired Elfreda 
Briggs. 

“ Do? I expressed my sentiments in a message 
to the superintendent that made the wires sing. 
Til get action or I 7 11 — 77 

“ Get into jail, 77 finished Emma amid laughter. 

“Well, not this trip, 77 responded Lieutenant 
Wingate dryly. “ I just came over to tell you. 
I 7 m going back now to see what the Super has to 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


25 


say in reply. I’ll let you know as soon as some¬ 
thing develops. ’Bye! ” 

By the time Hippy reached the station the 
agent had received orders regarding the car of 
draft horses but no information regarding the 
ponies, so Lieutenant Wingate sent another mes¬ 
sage, more forceful than he had sent before. 
Still no reply. Hippy sent still another one; and 
he continued to send messages to various railroad 
officials, messages that had a punch in them. 

In the meantime Grace and Tom had walked 
into the village, first to the post office, then to the 
hotel, to inquire if there were a place nearby 
where they might procure horses for their journey, 
and to make further inquiries about a guide, pro¬ 
vided they should need one. Their quest amounted 
to this: There was a stock farm about ten miles 
from Cinnabar where horses might possibly be 
obtained, but neither the hotel proprietor nor the 
postmaster knew where they could find a guide, 
as, at this, the busiest period of the tourist traffic, 
guides were in great demand. 

“ When you get into the Park you no doubt 
will be able to pick up someone who knows the 
Park. If not, why not take a Concord coach or a 
car and do the Park the way other tourists do? ” 
the hotel proprietor suggested. 

“ Because we prefer to ride our horses through, 1 ” 
answered Tom briefly. “ Come, Grace! ” 


26 


GRACE HARLOWE 


They returned to camp, first having made some 
food purchases, and shortly after their arrival 
Hippy came in, but he still had no news for them, 
and that night the Overland Riders turned in 
rather glum, for their misfortune at the very be¬ 
ginning of the season’s outing disturbed them con¬ 
siderably. Then again, the ponies belonging to 
their outfit were trained animals and represented 
quite a heavy investment; but, like the good 
travelers they were, the Overland Riders tried to 
make the best of their troubles, hoping that the 
morrow might bring them better luck. 

The morning, however, failed to bring anything 
in the way of news, and once more Lieutenant 
Wingate began bombarding officials with tele¬ 
grams. This continued for three days following; 
then, one morning, the camp was awakened by a 
loud halloo, which brought all hands to instant 
wakefulness. Hippy ran out from his tent in his 
pajamas. 

“ Telegram for Theophilus Wingate,” announced 
the boy who had brought the message. 

The Overlanders, peering from their tents, saw 
Hippy tear the envelope open, then, after a brief 
perusal of the contents, begin to dance about with 
as fine a display of temper as his companions had 
ever seen him exhibit. 

“ Uncle Hip’s got the willies,” observed Stacy 
Brown. “ I hope he doesn’t give them to me.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


27 


“ Hey, there! What is it all about? ” demanded 
Tom Gray, emerging from his tent. 

“ Yes, let us have the news. Don’t keep us in 
suspense any longer,” called Grace. 

“ News? News? ” roared Hippy. “ Of all the 
blithering idiots — of all the fool blundering that 
mortal man ever heard of, this is the end of the 
limit. What do you think? ” 

“ Nothing! ” shouted Stacy. 

“ It is too early in the morning for Chunky to 
think,” piped Emma. “ You should know by this 
time that his mental processes never do function 
before breakfast, and then merely nominally.” 

“ Why don’t you give me the absent treat¬ 
ment? ” suggested Stacy. 

“ As I began to remark, what do you folks 
think? ” resumed Hippy. “ Listen to the message 
from the division superintendent of the outfit 
that calls itself a railroad.” Hippy then read 
the following message to his companions: 

“ ‘ T. H. Wingate: 

“ ‘ Regret to report that car 16,431, billed Cinna¬ 
bar, with horses for the Overland Riders, was by 
mistake shifted to siding at Summit Junction early 
morning of the fourteenth and by mistake of 
train crew left there when taking on car of work 
horses for the west. Regret also to report that, 
upon examining the car supposed to contain Over¬ 
land Riders’ mounts, it was found to be empty. 


GRACE HARLOWE 


28 

k 

Making investigation and will report develop¬ 
ments/ ” 

“ Empty! ” howled Stacy Brown. 

“ Our ponies gone! ” cried Emma. 

The Overland Riders uttered long-drawn 
groans; that is, all did except Hippy Wingate. 
Hippy, barefooted, was chasing the telegraph 
messenger out of camp, and shouting his opinion 
of railroads and railroad officials. 


CHAPTER III 

ON THE ROAD TO WONDERLAND 

44 T REMEMBER that stop, Summit Junc- 
1 tion,” cried Miss Briggs. “We stayed 
-JL there so long that I peeked out of the win¬ 
dow wondering if it was another hold-up, but there 
was nothing to see.” 

“ What could have happened to the poor little 
animals? ” wondered Nora Wingate. 

“ Happened! ” roared Hippy Wingate, limping 
back to camp with a stone bruise on each foot. 
“ Somebody stole the whole outfit, that’s what 
happened. Dear friends, make up your minds to 
kiss your ponies good-bye. The chances are that 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


29 


you never will see them again,” he added, nodding 
at Miss Dean. 

“ Thank you. I do not kiss horses, but I wish I 
could get near enough to mine to do so if I 
wished,” replied Emma. 

“ The question is, what are we to do now? ” 
reminded Grace. 

“ This being my party I will furnish new mounts 
if I can find them,” announced Hippy. “ I’ll tell 
you what. Tom, you and Stacy go with me and 
we will get a Gig ’ and drive out to the stock farm 
that you and Grace found out about. If we can 
get animals there that are worth while IT1 buy 
them and we should be ready to start for the 
Park early to-morrow morning. All agreed? ” 

“ Yes! ” cried the girls. 

“ While we are absent, find out all you can 
about the route to the Park, you stay-at-homes,” 
directed Tom. 

Tom Gray started a fire, and by the time the 
men had finished dressing, the girls were busily 
engaged getting breakfast. 

Breakfast was a hurried affair, for Tom and 
Hippy were eager to be off in order that they 
might settle the question of mounts before the 
day came to an end. An hour later, with Stacy 
Brown riding on behind, the three started away in 
a buckboard for their drive into the country. 

After breakfast, Grace and Elfreda went into 


30 


GRACE HARLOWE 


town to make inquiries as to their proposed jour¬ 
ney. From a Park guard, whom they found at 
the post office, the two girls learned that a govern¬ 
ment road led from Cinnabar directly into the 
Park. He said that there was no possibility of 
the party losing their way, and gave them informa¬ 
tion about what they should do after reaching the 
Park. 

Before leaving the post office Grace and Elfreda 
had a picture of the route well in mind. The Park 
guard also informed them that they would have 
no difficulty in picking up a guide once they 
reached the Park itself. 

“ This seems to clear up every problem except 
the question of mounts,” announced Grace. “ I 
presume it would be wise to order provisions, to be 
paid for and taken if our men folk succeed in get¬ 
ting ponies for us.” 

After making provisional purchases they re¬ 
turned to camp, and there the girls spent the rest 
of the day waiting rather impatiently for the re¬ 
turn of the horse-hunters, but it was not until 
supper time that the three men returned. With 
them they brought a string of western ponies and 
two pack horses. The animals were not sleek like 
their own mounts, but Tom and Hippy assured 
the girls that the animals were guaranteed, and 
that, while they were not all that could be desired, 
still they were a find. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


31 


“ Pick your horses,” directed Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. “ But don’t all choose the same horse. If 
you do you will have to draw lots to settle the 
difficulty.” 

“ I have a better plan/’ spoke up Miss Briggs. 
“ Number the animals, write the numbers on slips 
of paper and place the papers in a hat; then we 
will each draw a slip.” 

“ Good idea,” nodded Stacy Brown. “ We don’t 
want any hair pulling in this outfit.” 

“ Stacy! ” rebuked Nora. “ I am amazed at 
you.” 

“ You shouldn’t be,” interjected Emma. 

The drawing took place at once, and for a won¬ 
der each girl got the pony that pleased her. After 
supper the purchases made by Grace and Elfreda 
were brought over to camp and packs were made 
up for an early start. The Overland party were 
on their way shortly after sunrise on the following 
morning. The ponies behaved well and the party 
was as well satisfied with them as could be ex¬ 
pected in the circumstances, and happy to be 
once more in the saddle, and especially to be “ on 
their own,” as Miss Briggs expressed it, meaning 
that they were to be their own guides. 

The ponies started at a brisk trot down the 
dusty road, a pace that the pack animals stood up 
under very well, considering that they were carry¬ 
ing heavy loads. As they progressed the Over- 


32 


GRACE HARLOWE 


landers found themselves enveloped in a great 
cloud of suffocating dust that brought many 
coughs and sneezes. 

“ Gracious! ” exclaimed Elfredabetween coughs. 
“ I never in all my life swallowed so much dust 
as I have this morning.” 

“ And it isn’t what might be called ‘ pay dust/ 
either,” chuckled Lieutenant Wingate. 

“Hear! Hear!” cried Emma. “Hippy has 
made a joke.” 

“ He only thinks he has,” chortled Stacy. 
“ Why, I could make a better joke than that with 
my hands tied behind me.” 

“ And a gag between your teeth,” flung back 
Hippy, who was riding ahead. 

“ You have expressed my sentiments exactly,” 
laughed Tom Gray. 

“ You have offered us an excellent suggestion,” 
piped Emma, then fell into a severe fit of cough¬ 
ing. “ What is needed here is a sprinkling wagon,” 
she added chokingly. 

“Yes. You have said it,” agreed Nora. 

The road was now winding into a thick forest of 
slender scrubby pine. The little trees, tall and 
straight, stood so close together that a horse 
could hardly have been forced between them, 
and their foliage had been turned to a dirty yellow 
by the dust from the government road that had 
settled over it. The Overlanders, however, de- 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


33- 

spite these unpleasant features, were in good 
spirits, each one eagerly looking forward to their 
journey through Nature's Wonderland, which they 
were now entering. 

The Riders swept into Gardiner Canyon at a 
slow jog, finding instant relief from the dust, the 
road and river there winding between high cliffs, 
the outer gateway to the Park itself. 

A brief halt was made for luncheon, and late in 
the afternoon they came out upon a spacious 
plateau where they decided to pitch their camp 
for the night. According to the map of the Park 
that Tom had brought with him they were now 
but a short distance from the Mammoth Hot 
Springs. 

Camp was quickly made and a fire started, and 
the warmth of the fire, and the hot dinner that 
was soon served, brought comfort and loosened 
the tongues of the Overland Riders. 

“ Ahem! ” began Hippy, as they finished the 
meal. 

“ Uncle Hip is going to make a speech,” groaned 
Stacy Brown. 

“ Unhappy moment,” murmured Emma. 

“ Ladies and gentlemen, do you know where you 
are? ” he began oratorically. 

“ In the Yellowstone National Park,” shouted 
Stacy, amid laughter. 

“ Or nearly so,” corrected the speaker. “ Being 


8 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



34 


GRACE HARLOWE 


here, it is well that you should acquaint yourselves 
with the extent of the vast natural reserves upon 
which we are about to enter.” 

“ Make it short and snappy,” urged J. Elf red a 
Briggs laughingly. 

“It was in the year 1872 that the Congress of 
the United States passed an act which set aside 
forever as a public park that section of the country 
now known as the Yellowstone National Park. 
This great park is rectangular in shape, sixty-two 
miles long from north to south, by fifty-four miles 
wide.” 

“ Our city park at Chillicothe can beat that,” 
interjected Stacy. 

“ The Park has an area of 3,412 square miles,” 
continued Lieutenant Wingate. “ It has many 
lakes, nearly two hundred miles of improved roads, 
and a chain of hotels. The Park is patrolled by 
United States cavalry. The name of the Park 
is supposed to have been taken from the Indian 
name of the river, Mi-tsi-a-da-zi, meaning, ‘ Rock 
Yellow River.’ ” 

“ Ha, ha! ” laughed the fat boy. “ That sounds 
as if it had been named by a baby.” 

“ Please do not interrupt the gentleman,” begged 
Emma gravely. 

“The Park is located in northwestern Wyo¬ 
ming, with a narrow strip in Montana and Idaho. 
It is open from June to September, I understand.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


35 


“ I believe there is much game in the Park/' 
suggested Nora. “ Do you know anything about 
that? ” 

“ Oh, yes. My information on this vast Park is, 
I might say, wide. Buffalo, elk and deer, with 
many bear, some antelopes, a few coyotes and 
much small game, are to be found here,” Hippy 
informed them. 

“Hooray! Well have a bear hunt,” shouted 
Stacy. 

“ Not here, you won’t,” answered Tom Gray 
severely. 

“ Why won’t we? ” demanded the fat boy. 

“ This is a government preserve, young man, 
and hunting is forbidden here,” replied Tom. 

“ Tom is right, Stacy, and you will please not 
forget that your Uncle Sam is not to be trifled 
with. Follow the crowd and sit on your safety 
valve until we get clear of the Park,” advised 
Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Pshaw! ” grunted the fat boy. “ Somebody 
is always taking the joy out of life. When do we 
see the geezers? ” 

“ The what? ” exclaimed the Overlanders in 
chorus. 

“ The geezers? The things that squirt up into 
the air? ” 

“ Geezers! Geezers!” groaned Emma Dean. 
“ This is too much.” 


36 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ You mean geysers, don’t you? ” asked Grace 
after the laughter had subsided. 

“ Yes. Something of that sort. Is that what 
they call them? ” 

“ Certainly, Stacy. Geysers,” nodded Grace. 

“ I thought it was geezers.” 

“ Your early education has been sadly neglected, 
I fear,” averred Tom Gray dryly. 

“ When I was a boy they didn’t have geysers. 
They were geezers,” muttered Stacy. 

“ Rut they had spouters then as now,” chuckled 
Emma. “I — ” 

“ Hark! ” warned Grace, holding up a hand for 
silence. “ I hear a horse coming at a gallop.” 

“ Perhaps it is one of the troopers coming to see 
who and what we are,” suggested Tom. 

All heard the hoof beats from the direction of 
Cinnabar; then they saw a rider come around the 
bend just beyond and slow down as he espied the 
camp. Halting when he reached the camp, the 
stranger touched his sombrero and bade the Over¬ 
landers a pleasant good-evening. 

“ Howdy, stranger,” greeted Hippy, walking out 
to the newcomer. “ Get off and have a snack, 
won’t you? We have just finished our chow, but 
there is enough left for you, I reckon.” 

“ Thankee. I had my supper at Cinnabar. 
Name’s Jim Badger. I’m one of them guide fellers. 
Want a guide? ” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


37 


“ Get down and we will talk it over,” invited 
Hippy, and beckoned to his companions who 
strolled over and were introduced by Lieutenant 
Wingate. “ This man says he is a guide and offers 
his services. What do you think about it, folks? ” 

“ Do you know the Park well? ” questioned 
Tom. 

“ I reckon nobody knows it better.” 

“ How did you know that we were without a 
guide? ” asked Grace. 

“ The folks back in Cinnabar told me when I 
rode in there this afternoon, so I jest hustled 
down here to catch up with you.” 

“ What will you charge to guide us through the 
Park? ” asked Hippy. 

“ All I can git.” 

“What you get out of this outfit won’t make 
you round-shouldered to carry,” Stacy informed 
the applicant. 

“We ordinarily pay about twenty-five dollars 
a week,” said Tom. 

“ How long you folks goin’ to be here? ” 

“ Perhaps a month,” replied Tom. “ We wish 
to do the Park thoroughly.” 

“I’ll take the job.” 

“ Not so fast, old man. We haven’t asked you 
to do so yet. In fact, we had rather decided not 
to take on a guide, and that we would go it alone,” 
Lieutenant Wingate made reply. 


38 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ You hired Jake Coville, didn’t you? ” 

“ What do you say, folks? ” questioned Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate, ignoring Badger’s remark, and 
turning to the Overlanders. 

“ I think we will leave the decision to you and 
Tom,” answered Grace, glancing at her com¬ 
panions who nodded their assent. 

“ What do you say, Tom? ” 

“ I agree, Hippy.” 

“We will take you, Badger — take you on a 
week’s trial, if that suits you,” announced Hippy. 

“ I reckon it’ll have to. Where you goin’? ” 

“ You are the guide. That is for you to sug¬ 
gest,” spoke up Captain Gray. 

“ The usual, I suppose,” nodded Badger. 

“ No. Not the usual,” interjected Grace. “ We 
wish to see what the ordinary tourist doesn’t see.” 

The new guide wrinkled his forehead in thought. 

“ How does the Mammoth Springs in the morn¬ 
ing strike you folks, then the geysers, and so on 
through? ” 

Tom Gray said that was in accordance with the 
plans already in mind. 

“ Got permits for the Park? ” asked the guide. 

“ Not yet,” replied Hippy. 

“ Then you got to go to the office in the mornin’ 
and git them. You all have to register, you 
know.” 

They did not know of this regulation for 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


39 


campers, though supposing that some sort of re¬ 
quirements 'were demanded of outfits such as 
theirs. 

The party now sat down by the fire to discuss 
the Park and the features that they wished to 
see. Badger sat hunched down before the blaze, 
furtively studying his new charges. This, of 
course, he had a right to do, and perhaps it was 
proper that he should. He, in turn, was closely 
observed by the Overlanders themselves. Badger 
was a slight, wiry fellow, keen-eyed and observ¬ 
ant, as the Overlanders soon discovered, and some¬ 
how the girls of the party were not thoroughly 
at their ease under his observation. They were 
therefore somewhat relieved when Hippy took the 
guide out to show him their equipment and give 
Badger a line on their way of doing things. The 
guide quickly discovered that the Overland Riders 
were fully as well informed on camp life in the 
woods or mountains as he himself was. Still, 
there were some features about these seasoned 
young people that he had yet to learn. 

The party chatted until late in the evening, 
then turned in with the moon shining down on 
their little tents, happy to be once more close to 
nature, and anticipating a peaceful night’s sleep 
in the open. A rude awakening awaited them, 
however, and, as usual, Stacy Brown was to be 
the moving cause of the disturbance. 


40 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER IV 

UNBIDDEN GUESTS IN CAMP 

THAT do you think of Badger? ” asked 
%/%/ Grace as she and Elfreda were pre- 
* * paring for bed. 

“ He is an odd fellow, but I reckon all guides are 
more or less peculiar. So are we for that matter.” 

Grace admitted the truth of the statement. 

“ Will you folks please keep quiet in there? 
Don’t you think I want to go to sleep? ” demanded 
Stacy from an adjoining tent. 

“ It will take more than talking to cause you 
to lose sleep,” piped the voice of Emma Dean. 

“ Don’t interrupt, young man. We are having 
a private conversation,” begged Miss Briggs 
laughingly. However, she and Grace finished 
their talk in lower tones, and soon after that quiet 
settled over the camp, the guide being curled up 
in his blankets by the fire, long since sound asleep. 

It was shortly after midnight that Grace, awak¬ 
ened by the snorting and stamping of the ponies, 
sat up to listen. She knew that something had 
disturbed them, but before she could get up to 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


41 


investigate, the camp was startled by a wild yell 
from Stacy Brown, who occupied a little shelter 
tent by himself. 

“Yeow— wow! They’re after me!” howled 
Stacy, rushing from his tent in a high state of ex¬ 
citement. By this time the Overlanders were run¬ 
ning towards him, Jim Badger in the lead. 

“ They’re after me — right after me! ” explained 
the fat boy almost incoherently. 

The out-turning Overlanders came to a sudden 
halt. Three big, shadowy figures were discovered 
ambling away from the camp. 

“ Bears! ” screamed Emma Dean. 

“ Grizzlies,” supplemented the guide. 

“ Oh, wow! ” yelled Chunky, vanishing into his 
tent. “ What’s the shortest route to the railroad 
station? ” 

“ Keep quiet. Don’t stir them up,” warned 
Jim Badger. “ They are after grub, that’s all.” 

“ It looks as though we were the ones to get 
excited, not the bears,” exclaimed Miss Briggs. 
“ Do I understand you to mean that we are the 
food they are after? ” 

At this juncture, Stacy Brown was seen to spring 
from his tent, rifle in hand. 

“ Stop that! ” thundered Hippy. 

“ Put down that gun! ” commanded Tom Gray 
sternly. 

Too late! Badly frightened, Stacy threw the 


42 


GRACE HARLOWE 


gun to his shoulder, and fired after the barest pre¬ 
tense at aiming. Chunky fully intended to empty 
the magazine at the retreating bears, but before he 
could fire a second time Lieutenant Wingate 
struck up his arm, sending the muzzle of the rifle 
pointing skyward, just as the fat boy pulled the 
trigger. 

“ Don’t be a fool! What are you trying to do? ” 
demanded Hippy. 

“ I shot one, I did,” cried Stacy exultingly as 
Hippy took the rifle from him. 

“ No you didn’t,” retorted the guide. “ And a 
mighty lucky thing for you that you didn’t. It’s 
against the Park rules.” 

“ Is it against the law to stop wild animals from 
eating you? ” demanded the fat boy indignantly. 

“ I reckon it ain’t.” 

“ It’s a poor rule that doesn’t work both ways. 
If the bears have a right to try to eat me, I 
surely have a right to see to it that they don’t. 
Such fool laws! You make me weary.” 

The bears were now nowhere to be seen. At the 
first shot, which, fortunately, had gone wide of 
the mark, they had ambled away into the dark¬ 
ness. The guide seemed ill at ease. 

“ Just the same you shouldn’t have done that, 
young feller,” he said with a shake of the head. 
“ It may git us into a lot of trouble.” 

“ Huh! I came near getting into trouble as it 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


43 


was. Do you know, one of those beasts was com¬ 
ing right into my tent? ” 

“ Bears always hang around a camp at night 
lookin’ for an easy livin’. They never do no harm 
to anybody if they’re let alone. When the she- 
bears have cubs with them, though, they’re 
mighty touchy. I hope nobody heard that shot.” 

“ Why? ” demanded Miss Briggs. 

“ If anybody did we’ll hear from it.” 

“They had better not bother me,” scoffed 
Stacy. “ I know my business, and if they say 
anything to me I’ll tell them a thing or two.” 

At Grace’s suggestion the party returned to their 
beds. Badger said the bears had had too big a 
scare to permit them to come back that night, 
so the Overlanders turned in to finish their night’s 
rest. 

“ If you folks was over to the Mammoth 
Springs Hotel now, you’d find the bears at the 
dump there finishin’ their meal,” said the guide 
as they bade him good-night. 

“ I hope to goodness that the beasts stay there,” 
muttered Emma, who was still considerably 
frightened. 

The party had little more than composed them¬ 
selves between their blankets than the hoof beats 
of rapidly moving horses were heard, and once 
more the Overland Riders sat up in their beds 
listening. 


44 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Hulloa the camp! ” shouted a voice as two 
horses halted close by. 

“ What do you want? ” demanded Stacy, peer¬ 
ing from his tent; the others of the party who 
had heard the hail and the fat boy’s answer de¬ 
cided to lie still and await developments. 

“ Hear anybody shooting ’round here? ” asked 
one of the horsemen. 

“ Hear anybody shooting? ” repeated Stacy. 
“ How could I hear anybody shooting when I was 
in bed and asleep ? ” 

“ That wasn’t what I asked you, young fellow.” 

“ That wasn’t what I answered you, either,” 
came back Stacy promptly. 

“ Who is the boss of this party? ” 

“ I am,” answered Chunky pompously. 

“ Who are you? ” 

“ I’m Brown. Who are you? ” 

“ I’m White of —” 

“ Ho-ho,” laughed Stacy. “ Lucky we aren’t 
Black and Blue, isn’t it? ” 

a We’re Park guards from the Thirteenth 
Cavalry. We think shots were fired from this 
camp and we want to know why.” The trooper 
got down, handing his bridle rein to his com¬ 
panion. “ I want to see the rest of this outfit.” 

At this juncture Tom and Hippy stepped out 
and bade the guards a courteous good-evening, 
while the girls of the party were dressing. 


45 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 

♦ 

“Who are you? 5 ’ demanded the trooper, turn¬ 
ing sharply on the two men. 

Hippy introduced himself and Tom, and told 
the guard that the outfit was the Overland Riders 
starting in to ride the Yellowstone Park. 

“ What do you know about the shots we heard? ” 

“ Two shots were fired here, sir, a short time 
ago. I don’t know whether or not they were the 
ones you heard.” 

“ It was a mistake,” spoke up Tom Gray. 
“ The one who fired the shots was laboring under 
great excitement at the time and did not realize 
that he was doing wrong.” 

“ Who fired them? ” 

No one answered, and the question was re¬ 
peated. 

“ I do not know that we are obliged to answer 
that question,” replied Lieutenant Wingate after 
a slight hesitation. “ I will take the responsibility, 
whatever it may be.” 

“ No, he won’t,” announced Stacy Brown, step¬ 
ping forward. “ He didn’t do the shooting. I did 
it.” 

The guard looked perplexed. 

“ Somebody around these parts is lying,” he said. 

Hippy flushed. 

“ I tell you I did it,” insisted Stacy. 

“Be quiet, Stacy. I am speaking with the 
guard,” rebuked Hippy. 


46 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ I won’t. I guess I’ve got a right to talk if 
I want to. I’ll tell you what happened, Mr. 
Guard. I woke up and found a big bear coming 
into my tent, and I grabbed up my gun and shot 
at him. That’s all there was to it.” 

“ Did you hit him? ” demanded the guard. 

“ I reckon I did. I never miss what I shoot at,” 
answered the fat boy boastfully. 

The Overlanders groaned under their breaths. 
Badger, who had got up unnoticed, was standing 
in the background listening to the conversation. 

“ Have you a guide? ” asked the trooper. 

“ Yes.” 

“ Why didn’t he prevent the shooting? ” 

“ The guide was asleep,” explained Hippy. 
“ No harm was done, as this young man plainly 
did not hit either of the animals. We are very 
sorry that a park regulation has been violated by 
one of our party, and assure you that it will not 
occur again.” 

“ I reckon we’ll stay here to-night,” announced 
the guard. 

“ We shall be glad to have you,” spoke up Tom. 
“ Mr. Badger, take care of these men’s horses. 
You may have my tent, gentlemen. I have my 
sleeping bag.” 

“ I reckon you don’t have to disturb yourselves. 
We’ll bunk on the ground. First, we want to see 
the rest of your party.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


47 


“ They are all women,” answered Hippy. “ I 
don’t know whether you can see them or not.” 

At this juncture the girls stepped out, each fully 
dressed, and the troopers saluted, which salutes 
were returned snappily by the Overland girls, 
rather to the amazement of the two Park guards. 
The troopers had given Badger a keen look, and 
that was all, but instead of permitting him to care 
for their mounts, they led them over and tethered 
them with the Overland ponies. When they re¬ 
turned, the Overlanders were turning in. One 
trooper lay down just inside the tent occupied by 
Tom and Hippy, the other rolling up in his blanket 
at the entrance to Stacy Brown’s shelter tent. 
Stacy eyed the man sourly. In his heart he hoped 
that the grizzlies would come back and give the 
fellow a scare. Stacy did not take the situation 
very seriously. 

“ Maybe you would like my bed,” suggested the 
fat boy. 

“ This will do, thanks.” 

“ Why do you hang around me? ” 

“ To see that you don’t get into any more mix- 
ups,” was the brief reply. 

“You better look out for yourself, Mr. Man. 
I know how to take care of myself. I’m no 
tenderfoot.” 

The trooper was snoring, and Stacy sat eyeing 
the fellow disgustedly. 


48 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ I wouldn’t be such a sleepyhead for anything. 
He went to sleep while I was talking to him. I 
wish someone would talk me to sleep every night,” 
muttered the fat boy drowsily, then began to snore. 
Stacy had talked himself to sleep. 

Tom Gray and Lieutenant Wingate thought 
they knew why the troopers were remaining in 
the camp. Grace and Elfreda, in a whispered con¬ 
versation, talked the matter over and came to what 
proved to be the right conclusion. The Park 
guards had shown themselves to be good fellows, 
and thawed out considerably before the smiles of 
the girls. Badger was the sour one of the party. 
He did not like the turn affairs had taken. 

All hands had a good sleep for the rest of the 
night, and when the Overland Riders awakened 
they found the two troopers up and brushing up 
their own equipment. They ate breakfast with 
their hosts and then sat about until after eight 
o’clock, but as soon as the breakfast had been 
cleared away Trooper White rose. 

“You will all get your horses and come with 
me,” he announced sharply. 

“ Where to? ” questioned Tom Gray. 

“ To the Superintendent of the reservation.” 

“ Yes, thank you. We wish to see him,” nodded 
Tom. 

“ I reckon he will want to see you, too,” grinned 
White. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


49 


“Just what do you mean by that, Buddy?” 
demanded Hippy. 

“ I mean that you are all under arrest,” replied 
the trooper sternly. 

“ Un — under arrest! ” gasped Emma Dean. 

“ Pinched! ” groaned Stacy Brown. “ This is 
too much.” 


CHAPTER V 


STACY GETS ANOTHER SHOCK 



TEP lively! It is time we were at the 
fort,” urged the trooper. 


^ “I call this an outrage,” declared Nora 
Wingate heatedly. 

The guard made no reply, but strode away to¬ 
wards his horse, returning a few moments later 
w y ith the animal saddled and bridled. 

“ As we shall not return here in all probability, 
would it not be wise to break camp? ” suggested 
Grace. 

“ Can’t wait for that,” returned White briskly. 
“ Get your horses.” 

Hippy bristled. 

“ My dear sir, even if you are the United States 


'4 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



50 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Government, we are not going to leave this camp 
unprotected. If you can’t wait, have your com¬ 
panion remain here and guard it until our return. 
Understand? I refuse to leave this camp unpro¬ 
tected, nor can you make me do so. Now, which 
shall it be — strike camp or have the other guard 
stay here? ” 

The trooper eyed Lieutenant Wingate steadily 
for a few seconds, and the lieutenant returned the 
gaze in kind. 

“ Strike your camp! ” ordered White tersely. 

Hippy nodded to his companions. Badger 
grinned. He was much pleased that Hippy had 
faced the troopers and made them give in to him, 
but he w r ell knew that the party was not yet at 
the end of their troubles. There was still Colonel 
Appleby at the fort to be reckoned with, and the 
colonel was known to be a stern man. Of course 
the Overland Riders were not yet bothering them¬ 
selves about the colonel. 

Within half an hour the camp was struck and 
the outfit packed, the two troopers interestedly 
observing the work, and nodding approvingly. 
The Overland party set out soon after that, White 
and his companion riding ahead, Jim Badger 
bringing up the rear, but this morning the Riders 
were unusually quiet. 

After reaching the fort on the plateau where 
the Mammoth Springs Hotel was located, White 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


51 


ordered his prisoners to dismount and follow 
him. They were escorted into Colonel Appleby's 
presence. 

“ What have you to say to this? ” demanded the 
colonel, after Trooper White had briefly stated the 
case against the Overlanders. 

“ We do not deny the facts, sir,” replied Tom 
Gray. “ I assure you, though, that there was no 
intent to violate Park regulations.” 

Colonel Appleby regarded the party with keen 
appraising gaze, and saw that he was dealing with 
people of refinement. 

“ Which one did the shooting? ” he demanded 
finally. 

“ I did,” answered Stacy, standing up. 

“ Explain how you came to discharge your rifle.” 

Stacy did so, telling the story of the incident 
exactly as it had occurred. He saw that it would 
be futile to try to impress the colonel with his im¬ 
portance. The officer listened attentively. 

“ Did you hit the bear? ” 

“ I — I guess I didn’t. I couldn’t see very well 
in the darkness,” answered Chunky rather lamely. 

“ I am positive that he did not hit a bear,” 
volunteered Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Mr. Wingate struck up the shooter’s arm as 
he was taking his second shot,” interjected Tom. 

The colonel regarded Tom shrewdly, with the 
suspicion of a twinkle in his eyes. 


52 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ As you undoubtedly are aware, discharging 
firearms in the Park is a serious offense. Strict 
regulations govern the carrying of arms, and for 
reasons which you will readily understand. In 
the circumstances, I have no alternative in the 
matter. I might imprison the young man, but I 
shall not do so. Instead, I shall impose a fine of 
fifty dollars, and —” 

“ Fifty dollars! ” gasped Chunky, aghast. 

“ As I was about to say,” resumed the officer, 
“ I fine you fifty dollars, but will remit the fine 
pending your future good behavior.” 

Stacy Brown drew a long sigh of relief. 

“ I shall require, however, that your party give 
up their arms or have them sealed to remain so 
until you leave the Park. This is customary. 
Your side arms, if you have any, you are at liberty 
to carry as usual. Instead of giving up their arms, 
travelers ordinarily prefer to have the locks of 
the weapons sealed, so that, in case they are beset 
by bear or other animals, they may have a means 
of defending themselves. This sometimes occurs.” 

“ If a bear tackles me, may I kill him? ” inter¬ 
posed Stacy hopefully. 

“ Self-preservation is the first law of nature, 
young man. So far as I know that law has never 
been repealed,” smiled the colonel. “ But make 
no mistake in this matter. It is generally better 
to run than to shoot. You are guiding this party, 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


53 


are you not? ” be demanded, turning to Jim 
Badger. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“ Then I shall hold you, as well as your em¬ 
ployers, responsible, for any violation of Park 
regulations. That will be all. You will please 
register, get your permits, and turn your weapons 
over to the guard to be sealed, provided you wish 
to take them with you.” 

After thanking the officer, the party walked 
out, Stacy soberly, the others smiling broadly. 

“ I wonder what next? ” laughed Nora. 

“ Probably a life sentence for Stacy,” answered 
Elfreda. 

“ I shan’t serve it alone,” retorted Chunky. 

After having the locks of their weapons sealed 
with sealing wax, the Overland party left the fort, 
and immediately held a consultation with their 
guide, at which they decided to make camp near 
by, using the Springs section as a base for a few 
days while exploring that part of the Park. 

A camp site was selected about half way up the 
slope, overlooking the fort, the plateau and the 
hotel. It was both sightly and delightful there, 
and their camp was made with some idea to per¬ 
manency. Badger proved himself to be extremely 
handy at this work, and the Overlanders concluded 
that he was going to be a useful man for them. 

The work was finished shortly before noon, 


GRACE HARLOWE 


54 

and Grace suggested that they all go to the hotel 
for luncheon, a suggestion that was enthusiasti¬ 
cally approved, so, putting on their “ best,” the 
party rode down to the hotel, where they enjoyed 
a real meal of brook trout and other good things. 
After luncheon they sat on the broad veranda 
watching the splendid teams hooked to Concord 
coaches, carrying parties of tourists to the geysers 
or on a journey around the Park itself. 

From the verandas of the hotel were visible 
the dazzling white terraces of the Mammoth 
Springs, shining like ridges of solid silver in the 
bright sunlight. From the plateau, terrace rose 
upon terrace, finally disappearing among the pines 
far up on the opposite mountain-side. The guide 
told them that there were two hundred acres of 
these terraces. 

“ Yonder phenomenon that delights and mysti¬ 
fies, is simply calcareous material deposited by the 
overflowing springs held in — in a — a — well, in 
a chemical solution,” finished Tom hesitatingly. 

“ Ahem! ” said Emma. 

The others nodded solemnly, their eyes regard¬ 
ing the entrancing scene before them. In the far 
distance lay the Gallatin Range, ten thousand feet 
above the level of the sea, while, from the broad 
plateau, on which they were, rose Electric Peak, 
bordered at its base by a fringe of slender green 
pines. The Peak, from the first, held a strong 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


55 


appeal for the Overland Riders. Perhaps it was 
the name, perhaps something that they had heard 
about it, but whatever the reason, they determined 
to climb the Peak, where they were destined to 
learn more than guide books could tell them of 
Nature’s vast storage battery. 


CHAPTER VI 

THE INFANT GEYSER GETS BUSY 

ic IT AM going to visit the terraces,” announced 
Grace after breakfast next morning. 

JL “ Who is coming with me? ” 

“ The entire party, I reckon,” answered Elfreda. 
“ Ponies or on foot? ” 

“ Ponies, of course,” spoke up Hippy. “ Walk¬ 
ing is most tiresome exercise. That’s why I took 
up flying when we entered the World War,” he 
added amid laughter. 

An early start was made that morning, and 
shortly after sun-up the Overlanders dismounted 
at the base of the terraces, tethered their horses, 
and, led by the guide, began the upward climb, 
Stacy Brown, as usual, straggling some distance 
behind his companions. The party’s first halt 



56 


GRACE HARLOWE 


was made at the “ Infant Geyser/' and much 
merriment followed when the guide told them 
what it was. 

“ What’s all the row about? ” demanded Stacy 
as he came puffing up and saw a column of water, 
about the size of a lead pencil, squirting a few 
inches above the ground. “ What is that thing? ” 

“ Perhaps it is ‘ Old Faithful/ ” answered 
Emma teasingly. 

“ You don’t say? ” Stacy drew near, eyeing the 
“ Infant ” appraisingly. 

“ This is the ‘ Infant Geyser,’ ” Grace informed 
him. “ ‘ Old Faithful ’ throws a column of water 
one hundred and fifty feet high.” 

“ You don’t say? ” repeated the fat boy. 
“ How often? ” 

“About once every hour, I believe, Come! 
The others are getting ahead of us,” urged Grace, 
moving on up the mountain-side. 

Stacy glanced up the terraces, then down at the 
ponies, and concluding that his party would have 
to pass the “ Infant ” on their return, decided 
to remain where he was and “ wait for the ex¬ 
plosion ” of the little geyser. The Overlanders, 
however, apprehensive that the boy might get into 
fresh difficulties, cast frequent glances in his 
direction. Finally, Jim Badger became suddenly 
interested too. 

“ What’s he doin’ ? ” demanded the guide. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


57 


Stacy appeared to be hammering at something, 
and was so busy at his task that he probably had 
forgotten the very existence of his companions. 
After a few moments of activity on his part, they 
saw him get up and begin to jump up and down. 

“ I reckon we’d better find out what that boy is 
up to,” suggested Tom Gray. “ After this we 
mustn’t let him get away from us. We had better 
make haste.” Tom started sprinting down the ter¬ 
races, followed by the others of the party, run¬ 
ning, sliding, stumbling and laughing at their 
frequent mishaps. 

“ Oh, look! ” cried Emma Dean. 

There was no need for her warning shout, for 
every member of the Overland party had seen 
Stacy Brown suddenly fade out of sight, as a 
dull report assailed their ears, and a volume of 
steam and water showered over the immediate 
vicinity of the “ Infant.” The fat boy was now 
nowhere to be seen. 

“ He’s done it! He’s done it! ” wailed Nora. 

“ What’s happened? ” shouted Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate, the first to reach the “ Infant.” 

“ I’m boiled alive! ” groaned Stacy, who was 
found lying flat on his back, the picture of misery. 
“ Put me on a chunk of ice. Oh, wow! ” 

“ What is it? ” called Tom Gray, running up red 
of face and out of breath. 

“ The geezer blew up,” moaned Chunky. 


58 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Stop your nonsense! " commanded Hippy, giv¬ 
ing his fat nephew a vigorous shake. “ Did the 
geyser erupt? " 

“ Did it erupt? Look at me! " 

“ He's been doin' somethin’ to that spouter," 
declared the guide, who had been examining the 
exploded “ Infant." “ I reckon we’d better be git- 
tin' out of here before one of them Park guards 
comes nosin’ ’round." 

“ I can’t walk or ride. I’m all scalded," com¬ 
plained Stacy. “ I can’t even sit down, and I 
know I’ll have to sleep standing up, like a horse." 

“ All right, stay where you are," retorted Tom 
Gray. “ When the guards come along I reckon 
you will move." 

This warning had the desired effect, and Chunky 
got up without assistance, starting at a limping 
run for his pony. He appeared to be stiff in every 
joint, and used his legs as if they were a pair of 
wooden pegs stuck into his body at the hips. It 
was a funny sight, but only Emma Dean laughed. 

The Overlanders quickly mounted and rode 
away, finally pulling up under a thick growth of 
slender pines. 

“ Why should we run away like this? We have 
done nothing," protested Miss Briggs. 

“ Mebby we have," answered Badger enigmati¬ 
cally. “ If you folks want to, we can go back soon. 
Then everythin’ will be all right, but don’t you 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


59 


let anybody know you was near that spouter when 
it went off, Brown.” 

“ I want to examine that geyser further,” an¬ 
nounced Tom after the party had rested for a 
few moments. “ Now that the excitement is over 
we will ride back and have a look at it.” 

The Overlanders followed Tom, and as they 
finally came on a level with the “ Infant ” they 
discovered two Park guards intently gazing into 
the hole in the ground left by the explosion. 

“ What’s the matter? ” called Jim Badger. 

“ I reckon the baby had the colic,” answered a 
guard. 

“ Ho, ho; ha, ha! ” laughed Chunky. “ That’s 
a good joke.” 

“ Something must have stopped the vent,” said 
the guard. 

Stacy suggested that perhaps a rock may have 
got jammed in the hole. 

“ No harm done. So long,” called the troopers 
as they started away. 

“ Now tell us about it,” urged Elfreda, gently 
tugging at Stacy’s sleeve. “ What did you do to 
that geyser? ” 

“ I? Why, noth—-” 

“ Never mind, Stacy. We don’t care to know 
anything about it,” interrupted Grace. “ If we do 
not know, we surely cannot answer questions, 
should any be asked. Are we all agreed on that? ” 


60 


GRACE IIARLOWE 


All except Hippy said they were. He said he 
would talk with his nephew later. The Overland 
Riders then returned to their ponies and rode on 
in search of further sights. 

“ We’re cornin’ to the Devil’s Frying Pan,” 
finally announced Badger, pointing to a circular 
opening in the earth, about eight feet in diameter. 

“ I don’t like the name. It sounds shivery,” 
objected Emma. 

“ That’s his thumb over yonder,” continued the 
guide, nodding to Stacy. 

“ I’m not interested,” returned Chunky. “ Show 
me an angel trail, a cherub geyser or even a bit 
of angel cake and I’ll look at it. When do we 
eat? ” 

The guide said they would halt for luncheon 
when they reached the “ Black Geyser.” The roar 
of this, the first of the big geysers, was soon in 
their ears and, as they came in sight of the clouds 
of steam it belched forth, exclamations of amaze¬ 
ment rose to every lip. As they neared the great 
spouter, a strong odor of sulphur assailed their 
nostrils. 

“ Stacy, this is the place that you have been 
looking for,” cried Emma, sniffing the air sus¬ 
piciously. 

“ That is better than having the place looking 
for me,” retorted Chunky. 

After luncheon the afternoon was spent in visit- 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


61 


ing other wonders of the Park, and shortly before 
sundown the Overlanders turned their horses 
homeward. As they passed the Springs Hotel, 
Stacy called out that he was going to stop there 
to buy a package of gum. 

“ Look sharp that you don’t get into trouble,” 
warned Lieutenant Wingate. “ If you do, re¬ 
member you will have to get out of it as best 
you can.” 

“ I reckon I know how to take care of myself 
without any of your assistance,” flung back the 
fat boy as he headed his pony around the rear of 
the hotel and passed out of sight of his com¬ 
panions. 

That was the last the Overland Riders saw of 
Stacy Brown that night. Stacy purchased his 
gum and stood about chewing it for some time. It 
did not occur to him that he would be too late 
for dinner at the camp until darkness had settled 
over the Park. When thus reminded, Stacy 
started at a trot for his pony. 

In the meantime the Overlanders were wonder¬ 
ing what had becomq of him. They delayed 
dinner for an hour before they sat down to eat. 
Dinner finally finished and still no Chunky, his 
companions wondered still more. 

“ Perhaps Chunky decided to take dinner at the 
hotel,” suggested Miss Briggs. 

“ Not unless someone invited him to dinner,” 


62 


GRACE HARLOWE 


spoke up Nora. “ Chunky never spends any 
money unless he has to.” 

“ I cannot permit you to so disparage that boy, 
Nora Wingate,” rebuked Emma. “ Did he not 
leave us to buy five cents’ worth of gum at the 
hotel? ” 

“ You win,” laughed Grace. “ Tom, should 
Stacy not return soon, do you not think it would 
be advisable for someone to go to the hotel in 
search of him? ” 

“ Stacy is all right. Why worry? ” answered 
Tom. 

The Overland Riders did worry, however, and, 
though they discussed other things than the miss¬ 
ing boy, he was constantly on the mind of each 
member of the outfit. Nora was the first to voice 
her worry. 

“Hippy Wingate, I want you to go and find 
Stacy at once,” she exclaimed. “ I can’t stand 
this worry another minute.” 

“ Very well. I suppose there will be no sleep 
in this outfit until I solve the mystery,” answered 
Lieutenant Wingate, getting up and stretching 
himself. “ I’d a heap sight rather go to bed.” 

“Hippy! ” admonished Nora. 

“ All right. I’ll go. ” Hippy stalked from camp 
grumbling under his breath, determined, once he 
laid hands on his trouble-breeding nephew, to 
punish him severely. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


63 


Reaching the hotel, Lieutenant Wingate went 
directly to the night clerk and made inquiries. 
The clerk had neither seen nor heard of Stacy 
Brown — in fact he did not know who the boy 
was. 

Hippy went out wondering what next to do. 
Observing a sentry, one of the Park guards, pacing 
up and down before the army headquarters, the 
Overland Rider approached and hailed the sentry. 

“ Have you seen anything of a fat boy named 
Brown ’round here this evening, Buddy? ” he 
questioned. 

The sentry said that he had not. 

“ May I see Colonel Appleby? ” asked the Over¬ 
lander after a moment’s reflection. 

“ The colonel is away to-night and will not 
return until some time to-morrow.” 

“ Who is in charge? ” 

“ Lieutenant Chambers.” 

“ May I see him? ” 

The sentry said that the acting commanding 
officer was asleep and could not be disturbed. 

" Oh, very well.” Hippy started away, then 
halting, called back to the sentry to ask if a 
prisoner had been brought in that evening. 

“ No. Not since I went on duty.” 

That was all Lieutenant Wingate could think 
of at the moment. He did not know what to do 
next, then all at once he bethought him of Stacy’s 


64 


GRACE HARLOWE 


pony, and immediately began searching for the 
little animal. That quest also failed. He found 
no trace of the Overland pony, so Hippy re¬ 
luctantly turned towards camp. Reaching there, 
he reported his failure to find Stacy. 

The Overland Riders were now fully aroused. 
Nora insisted that the entire party should go out 
and make a thorough search for the missing boy, 
but Tom said that this was not practicable, that 
the wuse plan would be to turn in and wait for 
daylight; then, should the boy still be missing, to 
have the Park guards assist in the search for him. 
It was decided to follow Tom’s suggestion, where¬ 
upon the Overlanders began to prepare for bed. 
Some of them already had turned in when a shout 
aroused the camp. 

“ Hello the camp! ” shouted a voice. 

“ It’s Stacy! ” cried Nora. “ Oh, I’m so glad.” 

“ No. It is not Stacy,” answered Grace. “ It 
is a strange voice.” 

“ What is it? ” called the guide. 

“ I got a message for you. Is there a feller 
named Wingate — Lieutenant Wingate — here? ” 
answered a voice from the darkness. 

“ Yes. Come in,” answered Hippy. “ Hurry 
up! ” 

A boy, who proved to be an employe of the 
Springs Hotel, entered the circle of light cast by 
the campfire. Hippy strode forward to meet him. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


65 


A brief note, scribbled on a soiled piece of wrap¬ 
ping paper, was handed to the Overland Rider. 

“ The feller who gave this to me said as you 
was to pay me a dollar for delivering it,” an¬ 
nounced the messenger. 

Hippy, without replying, scanned the note. 
What he read out loud to the eager Overlanders 
was as follows: 

“ ‘ In jail at the Springs. Help! 

“ 4 Stacy/ ” 


Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 


66 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER VII 


IN THE TOILS 



i HE Overlanders groaned. 

“Hippy, Hippy! You go right down 
and get the poor boy out,” cried Nora. 
“ The idea! That poor boy in jail! ” 

The messenger demanded the dollar that had 
been promised to him. 

“ Who gave you the message? ” questioned 
Miss Briggs, stepping up to the newcomer. 

“ One of the soldiers. I don’t know his name, 
and never seen him before. Do I get the dollar? ” 

“ This letter says that the writer is in jail. 
We wish to know where and why. What do you 
know about it? ” demanded Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Nothing. I’ve told you all I know about it.” 

“ Very well. Here is your dollar. You may go 
now,” said Hippy, handing a dollar bill to the 
messenger; whereupon the boy ran away. 

“ This is a fine mess,” complained Tom Gray. 
“ I suppose we might as well do as Nora has sug¬ 
gested, and see what we can do for him. What do 
you say, Hippy? ” 


i 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


67 


“ Say? I’ll say that I am going to bed and get 
some sleep. To-morrow morning we will go down 
and take this matter up. Were we to go into it 
to-night, we probably should have nothing but 
our trouble for our pains.” 

“Yes, I think you are right,” agreed Emma. 
“ Besides, it will do Stacy worlds of good to stay 
in jail until morning. Pm not sure but that a 
longer time there might be beneficial to him.” 

“Emma! ” cried the Overland girls in shocked 
tones. 

“ We do not wholly agree with the sentiment, 
Emma, but we will, I think, be wise to follow 
Hippy’s advice and go to bed. There really ap¬ 
pears to be nothing that we can do to-night. I’m 
going to turn in,” announced Grace. 

“ So am I. And, girls! There’s one great satis¬ 
faction that I hope you have not lost sight of — 
Stacy is in a perfectly safe place. No harm can 
come to him, so let sweet peace hover over our 
dreams to-night. Good-night,” said Eifreda. 

The Overlanders turned in laughing, despite 
their worry over Stacy. Early on the following 
morning, immediately after breakfast, Tom and 
Hippy started down to the hotel, it having been 
decided to leave the girls in camp with the guide. 
Tom was of the opinion that two men could do 
more for Stacy than the entire party could do, so 
the two went alone. 


68 


GRACE HARLOWE 


On their way down they discovered Hippy’s 
pony, saddled and bridled, grazing on the moun¬ 
tain-side. The animal either had broken loose or 
someone had released him. Hippy caught the 
pony and led it along with them. Reaching the 
hotel, they secured the animal, then walked over 
to the office of the commanding officer, but it was 
locked and no one, not even a sentry, was to be 
found. After waiting about for nearly an hour a 
guard appeared and unlocked the door. In reply 
to Tom’s question, he said that Stacy Brown had 
spent the night in the guard-house where he then 
was, and that his case would be called before 
Lieutenant Chambers at nine o’clock that 
morning. 

“ May we see Mr. Brown? ” asked Tom. 

The guard said he had no right to permit them 
to do so, but that the acting commanding officer 
might give his permission. Rather than disturb 
the officer, Tom and Hippy decided to await his 
coming. 

“ This looks serious,” muttered Hippy. 

“ I hope Stacy looks upon it in the same light,” 
answered Tom. 

Promptly at nine o’clock Lieutenant Chambers 
arrived at the office. Tom and Hippy followed 
him in and introduced themselves, explaining 
why they were there. 

“ I know nothing about the case, except that I 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


69 


have been informed that Sergeant Stape of the 
Park guards made an arrest last evening. I will 
have the young man brought in at once, and we 
shall soon see if he is the one you gentlemen are 
looking for,” said Lieutenant Chambers. 

Following the lieutenant’s command to his- 
orderly, Stacy Brown entered the office, assuming; 
a painful limp as he walked, his face red and his 
hair crumpled as if it had not been combed in 
some time. After him came Sergeant Stape and 
a civilian, a surly-faced, bewhiskered fellow, 
whose shifty eyes avoided those of the officer and 
the Overland Riders present. 

Lieutenant Chambers perused the written report 
of the arresting guard. As he laid the paper down, 
Elfreda Briggs tripped into the room and quietly 
took a seat behind Tom and Hippy, who frowned 
their disapproval at her coming there. Stacy 
grinned sheepishly at Elfreda and sat down. 

“ Don’t be cross, you two. Grace insisted that 
I come,” whispered Elfreda to Tom and Hippy. 
“ Just leave this affair in my hands.” 

“ Sergeant Stape, you will state what you know 
about this case,” commanded the officer tersely. 

“ Two of our men reported yesterday that the 
‘ Infant Geyser ’ had been blown up, and that 
there were reasons for thinking that it had been 
tampered with, so, at Colonel Appleby’s direction, 
I ordered them to make a further investigation; 


70 


GRACE HARLOWE 


then last night along conies this fellow Bill Tag¬ 
gart and tells me he saw the deed done,” said the 
Sergeant, indicating the bewhiskered civilian. 
“ Later in the evening, Taggart met this man 
Brown, who, he says, had committed the act, so I 
arrested Brown and put him in the guard-house. 
That’s all I know about it.” 

The lieutenant then began questioning Taggart. 

Taggart said that he was a coach driver, and 
that, while conducting a party over Five Mile 
Pass, he had seen Brown fussing with the “ Infant 
Geyser ” ; then saw it blow up. He further testi¬ 
fied that, when he met Stacy near the hotel that 
night, he recognized the boy and told the sergeant, 
who made the arrest, of what he had seen. 

At this juncture Elfreda Briggs rose and stood 
gazing at Lieutenant Chambers. 

“ Sir,” she began, “ if I may be allowed to inter¬ 
rupt. This young man is one of the Overland 
party to which I belong. I am a lawyer, and I 
ask the privilege of questioning this witness. 
May I be permitted to do so, Lieutenant? ” 

“ Certainly.” Lieutenant Chambers smiled and 
nodded; whereupon Miss Briggs turned to Tag¬ 
gart and stood regarding him with a steady gaze. 

“ You say, Mr. Taggart, that you were on 
Five Mile Pass when you discovered Mr. Brown 
doing something to the ‘ Infant Geyser ’? ” asked 
Elfreda. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


71 


“ Yes.” 

“ How far is it from the point where you were 
standing at the time to the ‘ Infant ’? ” 

“ I reckon half to three-quarters of a mile.” 

“ You next saw Mr. Brown last night. Tell 
the lieutenant where Mr. Brown was at the 
time? ” 

“ Walkin’ behind the barracks headed towards 
the hotel.” 

“ It was dark then, was it not? ” 

“ So black you couldn’t see yer hand afore yer 
face,” answered the coach driver, whereupon 
Hippy Wingate grinned broadly. 

“ I submit, sir,” said Miss Briggs, turning to 
Lieutenant Chambers, “ that this man’s testimony 
is most interesting. First he sees Mr. Brown half 
to three-quarters of a mile away; then in a night 
so dark that he could not see his hand before his 
face, he instantly recognizes the young man. I 
submit, sir, that this man’s vision is most re¬ 
markable.” 

The officer frowned on the coach driver, but ere 
he could speak, Miss Briggs resumed. 

“ It is not my intention, sir, to attempt to sway 
your decision. Our outfit at the time the geyser 
blew up was in the immediate vicinity, but we 
do not know the cause. I think that Mr. Brown 
does, and I would suggest that he relate the facts 
to you. He is somewhat temperamental at times, 


72 


GRACE HARLOWE 


and apparently not always wholly responsible for 
his acts / 7 finished Elfreda, and sat down. 

“ Oh, what did you do that for? You had the 
lieutenant ready to discharge Chunky,” whispered 
Hippy. 

“ In the interest of truth and justice, young 
man,” replied Elfreda briefly. 

“ You win,” chuckled Hippy. 

Stacy’s eyes were large and troubled when he 
rose at the command of Lieutenant Chambers and 
began telling the story of the explosion. 

“ It was this way,” he said by way of introduc¬ 
tion. “ I stayed behind, while the rest of my 
outfit went on up the terraces, waiting for the 
geyser to let go. I wanted to see it spurt into the 
air. Well, it didn’t let go at all, and though I 
waited a long time it didn’t throw enough water to 
satisfy a canary’s thirst. I got tired of waiting; 
then I thought I would make the hole a little 
larger. I did so, whereupon the 4 Infant ’ just 
bubbled and stopped erupting. That made me 
think I’d better put it back as I found it, so I 
plugged the opening and stamped the plugging 
down with my heels and waited to see what hap¬ 
pened next. Nothing did, so I began poking it 
with my hunting knife when all of a sudden the 
thing went off and I got a bath of steam and hot 
water. I was almost scalded to death. That is 
the whole story, Sir,” finished the fat boy. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


73 


“Hm-m-m,” mused the officer, regarding the 
now thoroughly subdued Chunky. “You were 
called before this department once before, were 
you not? ” 

“ Yes, sir, for shooting at a bear that I thought 
was wanting to make a meal of me.” 

“ In view of the fact that you have admitted 
your fault and this being a second offense, I have 
no alternative. I am sorry, but I am obliged to 
fine you a hundred dollars.” 

“A hundred dollars!” gasped Stacy Brown. 
“I — I — Uncle Hip, can you cross my hand for 
a hundred? ” 

Lieutenant Wingate nodded. 

“ May I ask, sir, whether, in a case like this, 
there is a reward going to the informer? ” ques¬ 
tioned Miss Briggs, who had been narrowly ob¬ 
serving Taggart. 

“Yes. Half of the fine goes to the informer.” 

“ Thank you,” answered J. Elfreda sweetly, 
smiling as she noted the frowning expression on 
Lieutenant Chambers’ face as he regarded the 
coach driver. Elfreda had obtained information 
that was to prove of great use to the Overland 
Riders as well as to the Park officials in the near 
future. 


74 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER VIII 

HIPPY PAYS THE PIPER 

*ir T HY didn’t you get me out last 
\/\J night? ” demanded the fat boy after 
^ ▼ his uncle had paid the fine and the 
party were on their way back to camp. 

“ I will talk with you later, young man,” 
answered Hippy briefly. “ Elfreda, you do know 
how to handle a witness. Why, you could have 
gotten Stacy out had he not been questioned.” 

Elfreda shook her head, and she and Tom 
walked on ahead to talk, while Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate engaged his nephew in earnest conversation. 
When they arrived at the camp a warm welcome 
awaited Stacy Brown. 

“ Meet me with food,” shouted Chunky. 

“Come, girls! Let’s kill the fatted calf in 
celebration of the prodigal’s return,” cried 
Grace. 

“No, no! ” protested Emma Dean with mock 
seriousness. “ If you must sacrifice someone why 
not take Jim Badger? I don’t believe that either 
we or the world would miss him. Kill the fatted 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


75 


calf? Never! ” finished Emma amid the laughter 
of her companions. 

“ That’s right. Abuse me all you wish, but 
give me something to eat. I haven’t had a thing 
to eat except a package of gum, since yesterday 
noon,” complained Stacy. 

“ Your breakfast is already on the fire,” an¬ 
swered Grace. A few moments later Stacy was 
eating ravenously, rolling his eyes and listening 
to the story of the hearing, as related by Tom 
Gray. In the meantime Grace and Elfreda were 
talking together in low tones. 

“ I believe, since the hearing, that your sus¬ 
picions are right,” declared Miss Briggs. “ I 
didn’t think so before the hearing, but I do now.” 

“ Come here, you folks,” called Hippy. “ We 
are about to hold a family council. The question 
is, what would you advise that we do with Stacy? 
If he continues to mix things up the Overland 
Riders will, sooner or later, be involved in serious 
difficulties.” 

“ I should say that a warning now, to be fol¬ 
lowed by sending him home if he causes any 
further worry for us, would be the wise course,” 
spoke up Tom. 

“ No, no,” protested Emma. “ Think what a 
lot of entertainment we should miss. We in¬ 
tellectual persons need a foil — some brainless 
person to furnish light entertainment, for us. My 


76 


GRACE HARLOWE 


suggestion is that we appoint a guardian for 
Stacy — a guardian who will be responsible for 
him and whom he must obey.” 

“ You win,” cried Hippy amid laughter. 

“ I move that we appoint Emma Dean guardian 
ad lib., with full power to control all his activi¬ 
ties,” said J. Elfreda in her most severe legal 
tone. 

“ Ad who? ” frowned Stacy. 

“ Ad libitum, a Latin term, meaning ‘ at plea¬ 
sure/ ” answered Elfreda. 

“ I thank you, but fear that the task is too 
great,” murmured Emma. 

“ You can’t refuse. Remember, we agreed long 
ago that the majority should rule in the Over¬ 
land outfit. Are we all in favor of Emma Dean 
as Stacy Brown’s guardian? ” cried Grace. 

“ Yes! ” shouted the Overland Riders. 

“We promise to see to it that your ward ever 
honors and obeys,” added Elfreda. 

“ I won’t do it,” retorted Stacy belligerently. 

“ I accept,” announced Emma, after slight 
hesitation. “ I will exercise my new authority 
right now. Stacy, you look a fright. Go wash 
your face and comb your hair instantly.” 

“ I won’t do it! ” challenged the fat boy. 

“ Run along like a good little boy,” urged 
Emma. “ Here’s a nice piece of candy for you 
for being good,” persisted the girl mercilessly, the 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


77 


.. _ 

freckles on her frivolous little nose standing out 
more prominently than ever. 

“ Young man, did you hear what your guardian 
said? ” demanded Hippy. 

“ I heard, but I won’t do it,” retorted Stacy 
stubbornly, whereupon Hippy led him by one ear 
to a pail of water, and stood by until his nephew 
had thoroughly washed his face and hands. 

The Overlanders were convulsed with laughter, 
and Stacy’s face was red with humiliation. 

“ It’s too bad to treat him so,” declared Nora 
laughingly. 

“ No. It is what he needs,” answered Elfreda. 
“ Stacy is getting his punishment, and, if I know 
his guardian, there is still more coming to him. 
Let’s go! I want to ride.” 

It was a quiet and thoroughly subdued Stacy 
who accompanied them on their ride that day, 
though Emma Dean’s motherly solicitude for him, 
even to the extreme of cutting up his bacon at 
luncheon, filled his soul with resentment, and the 
hearts of the others with joy. Jim Badger finally 
reminded them that it was time to start back 
to camp. 

Miss Briggs suggested that it was also time they 
moved to another camping place, and asked the 
guide where he would advise making a new camp. 
He said he would let them know that night or on 
the following morning. 


78 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Why the delay? ” interjected Grace. 

“ Because I want to make inquiries about 
trails and the like. I don’t know everything 
about this Park — nobody does/’ he added, as 
they mounted and started away. The Over- 
landers acquiesced, content to let the guide make 
the arrangements to suit himself. 

Late in the day they approached the Springs 
Hotel at a brisk gallop and Hippy, now in great 
good humor, suggested that they show the guests 
of the hotel how the Overlanders could ride. 

“ Everyone do her prettiest,” he called. 

For the first time that day Stacy Brown, scent¬ 
ing an opportunity to distinguish himself, began 
to take a lively interest in their activities. 

“ Little boy, be careful that you don’t fall off,” 
warned Emma as they neared the hotel, the 
Riders presenting a snappy appearance, each one 
rigidly sitting his saddle, right arm hanging at the 
side, left hand lightly resting on the reins. 

The hotel veranda was crowded with tourists, 
as the dinner hour was approaching. Some of the 
guests gathered there already knew who the Over¬ 
landers were, and a burst of hand clapping greeted 
their arrival. 

Stacy Brown, laboring under his not infrequent 
delusion that he was the whole show, rose in his 
stirrups, hat in hand, the bridle-rein trailing on 
the pony’s neck, as he swept into the drive that 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


79 


led past the veranda. When directly opposite it 
Stacy’s mount stumbled in a rut. At that mo¬ 
ment, the fat boy, who was standing in his stir¬ 
rups, suddenly looked startled and emitted a 
howl, and as the pony’s nose struck the dust, the 
boy left his saddle with a neat, curving dive. He 
landed on his shoulders and flopped over on his 
back, accompanied by cries of alarm and laughter 
from the guests. 

Three men from the veranda ran to him. 

“ Are you hurt? ” questioned one. 

The boy eyed his questioner out of the corner of 
one eye, and getting up with an effort began 
brushing the dust from his clothing. 

“ Certainly not. Falling off a horse is fine ex¬ 
ercise before meals. It gives one an appetite. 
You should try it yourself,” returned Stacy. 

“ I reckon that boy gave you what you deserve,” 
said one of the man’s companions laughingly. 

The Overland Riders, in the meantime, trotted 
their horses around behind the hotel where they 
gave way to their merriment, and there they were 
joined by Stacy a few minutes later. His face was 
red, his nose was skinned, and he was complaining 
bitterly because his companions had deserted 
him. 

“ Stacy Brown, you’re a sight. Go into the 
hotel this moment and wash your face,” directed 
Emma in her severest tone. 


80 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ I’m going to, but not because you say so. 
I’m going to wash because I need it.” 

“ That’s a dear good boy,” approved Emma. 
“ For that I shall buy you an ice cream cone.” 

“ Thanks,” grinned Stacy, hitching his horse. 

“ Suppose we all have dinner at the hotel,” sug¬ 
gested Grace, which suggestion was eagerly wel¬ 
comed. “ Jim, you go on to camp and take care 
of the horses. We will walk back after dinner.” 

“ Before going farther, I wish to say that Stacy 
must apologize to the gentleman to whom he 
made the rude remark,” reminded Emma. 

To this the fat boy made no reply, but after 
the Overlanders had brushed the dirt from their 
clothes and started for the front of the hotel, 
Emma stepped up beside him and gently tugged 
at his sleeve. “ There sits the gentleman now. 
Go and apologize to him,” she directed. 

Stacy nodded, and, reaching the veranda, he 
walked up to the man to whom he had made the 
discourteous remark. 

“ I am sorry, sir, that I answered you discourte¬ 
ously when you came out to see if I was hurt,” 
said Stacy humbly. 

“ Eh?” 

Chunky repeated his apology. 

“Oh! You are the young man who came a 
cropper,” answered the gentleman, laughing good- 
naturedly. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


81 


“ No, sir. I am the rider that took a high dive 
from my horse. I — I didn’t mean to be dis¬ 
courteous. I apologize.” 

“ Don’t speak of it, young man,” answered the 
gentleman cordially. 

“ Thank you, I won’t. Just the same, I think 
that a dive like that before each meal might re¬ 
duce your flesh and do you a lot of good,” added 
the fat boy, eyeing the rather corpulent gentleman 
critically. 

The Overland Riders groaned, for Stacy had 
undone whatever good he might have accom¬ 
plished. Instead of being disturbed at Stacy’s re¬ 
mark, however, the gentleman introduced himself, 
saying that he was Colonel Scott, President of 
the C. V. & A. Railroad. Stacy then introduced 
him to “ Grace Harlowe Gray’s Overland Riders.” 

“Eh? Grace Harlowe Gray?” repeated the 
colonel reflectively. “ Where have I heard that 
name? I seem to know it well, and yet—” He 
regarded the flushed face of Grace with inquiring 
gaze. “No, there is nothing familiar to me in 
that face, but somehow the name revives old 
memories. Do I know you? ” 

Grace laughed. 

“ I believe you have never seen me before, sir.” 

“But the name is so familiar,” persisted the 
colonel. 

“ I am not at all amazed at that, sir, for under 


6 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



S2 


GRACE HARLOWE 


that name I once sent you a message that might 
have been, and probably was, construed as impu¬ 
dent/’ she said, flushing still more deeply. 

“Eh?” Colonel Scott looked puzzled. “I 
don’t understand. I — ” 

“You were Master of Transportation of the 
Northern Railroad in France, were you not, sir? ” 
suggested Grace demurely. 

“Yes. But—” 

“ And I sent you —” 

“I have it! I have it!” cried the colonel 
springing up and grasping both of Grace Har- 
lowe’s hands in his. “ Know you? I should say 
I do, and now that I am face to face with you, 
young woman, you are going to get a grilling that 
I have had in store for you ever since near the 
close of the World War.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


83 


CHAPTER IX 

ROBBERS LEAVE A TRAIL 

T HE Overland Riders looked at Grace, 
then at the colonel, not understanding. 
Colonel Scott first introduced Grace to 
his companions. 

“ This young woman with an assistant was 
transporting wounded men from a base hospital 
to Paris,” said the colonel. “ Their train was 
wrecked and the men were suffering in a cold 
railroad station to which Mrs. Gray had had 
them removed. They were without food, and the 
line was blocked for fifty miles ahead. She wired 
me for relief for the wounded men. Of course I 
couldn’t give it and so wired her. Then I got a 
sizzling message from her, saying that she was 
about to complain to the commanding officer of 
the American forces.” 

“ And she did, eh?” chuckled one of the colo¬ 
nel’s companions. 

“ I’ll say she did. That was not all. Less than 
half an hour later I received another message, 
this time from the commanding general, assur- 


84 


GRACE HARLOWE 


ing me that if I could not handle the transporta¬ 
tion of the Northern he would appoint a man who 
could.” The colonel laughed heartily, and his 
friends regarded Grace’s flushed face with new 
interest. 

“ I apologize,” said Grace. “ It was not a 
graceful thing to do, but I think you will admit 
that my action on that occasion was justified.” 

“ You got results, didn’t you? ” demanded 
Colonel Scott with some brusqueness. 

“ Oh, yes, sir.” 

“ And I got a calling-down — two of them, 
first by wire, then by letter from headquarters, 
and I said to myself, ‘ I hope I meet that young 
woman one day, and when I do I shall have some¬ 
thing to say to her.’ ” 

“ Now is your opportunity,” reminded Grace. 
“ What is it that you wish to say? ” 

“ Just this, Mrs. Gray — that, were you a man, 
I should make you a division superintendent on 
my railroad whether or not you had ever seen a 
railroad,” answered the colonel amid laughter. 

“ Suppose we go in and have dinner,” suggested 
Grace. “ Miss Briggs was my assistant on the 
occasion to which you refer. I suppose the criti¬ 
cism applies equally to her.” 

“ I had nothing to do with it,” protested J. 
Elfreda. “ Mrs. Gray has a habit of going ahead 
and doing things, asking advice afterwards,” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


85 


retorted Elfreda, as the party started for the hotel 
dining room. 

The Overlanders were the center of attraction 
and many an amused smile from the diners was 
directed at Stacy Brown, but Stacy did not ap¬ 
pear to observe their glances. He was pleased, 
however, that the diners were impressed with him 
despite the strip of black court plaster that now 
decorated the bridge of his nose. Hence the ex¬ 
cuse for the fat boy to throw back his shoulders 
and tilt the damaged nose up a few degrees. 

Stacy ate his dinner gravely, controlling his 
appetite very well. In fact, his table manners 
were something of a pleasant surprise to his 
companions, who had feared that the lad’s ap¬ 
petite might outdistance his breeding, as was not 
infrequently the case in camp. 

After dinner the Overland party returned to 
the veranda where they were joined by Colonel 
Scott, and reminiscences of the great war were 
indulged in, to which there were many listeners. 

After they had chatted for a time, Hippy ex¬ 
cused himself to go back to the camp to repair 
his saddle. When he reached there the camp¬ 
fire was burning low and Jim Badger was nowhere 
to be seen. Hippy did not give the guide’s absence 
any special thought at the moment, though Bad¬ 
ger should have remained there, instead of leaving 
the camp unprotected at night. 


86 


GRACE HARLOWE 


After replenishing the fire, Lieutenant Wingate 
began working on his saddle, the lining of which 
had that day been tom loose. He had been at 
his task for about an hour when Badger came in. 

“ Hey there, Jim! Why did you leave the camp 
unprotected?” demanded Hippy sharply. 

The guide’s face flushed. 

“ I was chasin’ some bears that had been nosin’ 
’bout the place.” 

“ From the camp? ” 

“ Yes. They was tryin’ to git at our chuck.” 

“ Oh, all right. It’s a pity that we can’t take a 
shot at those fellows,” declared Hippy. 

“ Mebby you'll git a chance when we git in 
the northeastern end of the Park,” suggested the 
guide with a sly wink. 

“ Not a single little thing doing in that direc¬ 
tion, Buddy. Don’t you make any such proposal 
to this outfit unless you want to get your walking 
papers,” warned Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ This outfit is mighty particular, ain’t it, eh? ” 

“ It is.” 

“ Well, I reckon that’s right. I was only jokin’ 
anyway.” 

Hippy made no reply, but continued with his 
work, observed appraisingly by the guide, who 
seemed much interested. 

In the meantime another and more exciting 
scene was being enacted at the hotel, where the 



“ I’ve Been Robbed ! ” 

87 














































































IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


89 


rest of the Overland party had been enjoying a 
delightful evening with Colonel Scott and his 
friends. Tom Gray had just been telling the 
colonel of the mysterious loss of the Overland 
ponies, and how the railroad president had 
promised to put forth efforts looking to the re¬ 
covery of the missing horses, when an interruption 
came. The wife of one of Colonel Scott's friends 
came running to the front of the house in search 
of her husband. 

“ I’ve been robbed! ” she cried, in answer to a 
volley of questions. 

“ Robbed? ” demanded a chorus of voices. 

“ Yes. When I came down to dinner I left my 
jewels on the bureau in my room. My purse, 
with a sum of money in it, was there also. That, 
too, is gone.” 

“ Where is your room? ” asked Tom Gray. 

“ At the rear of the house on the second floor, 
sir. Please, won’t someone do something? ” 

“ I should advise you to notify the hotel pro¬ 
prietor and leave the matter in his charge,” sug¬ 
gested Grace. “ Pardon me, but please give me 
the exact location of your room.” 

The woman did so in a few words. Colonel 
Scott said Grace’s advice was good and suggested 
that the woman and her husband go at once to 
their room. 

“ I will send the proprietor to you,” he con- 


90 


GRACE HARLOWE 


tinued. “ You know we do not wish to create a 
sensation here. 7 ’ 

“ I know. But, Colonel, that is not getting my 
jewels back , 77 protested the woman. 

Colonel Scott motioned to the woman's husband 
to take her away, after which the colonel went 
into the hotel to look for the proprietor. Stacy 
Brown strolled in after the couple. The fat boy 
went on upstairs keeping at a discreet distance 
behind the woman and her husband, and saw 
them enter their room. Ad joining At was a short 
hall leading off from the main corridor, and as 
Chunky reached it he leaned out of one of the 
open windows inhaling a long breath of the cool 
mountain air. Below him he saw the red roof 
of the rear veranda, but that was all. 

By the time he had finished his inspection and 
turned away, the proprietor was hurrying to the 
scene of the robbery. He bumped into Stacy at 
the junction of the corridor and the short hall. 

“ Who are you ? 77 demanded the proprietor 
suspiciously. 

“ Name’s Brown. What’s yours? 77 returned the 
boy. 

“ I am the proprietor of this house . 77 

“ And I am one of the unfortunate fellows who 
have had to stand for a few of its meals,” an¬ 
swered the Overlander, thrusting both hands in 
his pockets and strolling towards the stairway. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


91 


“ Where were you? We have been waiting for 
you/' questioned Tom Gray as Stacy returned. 

“ Just looking over the premises for clews, that’s 
all,” was the reply. . 

“ Well, did you discover anything? ” demanded 
Colonel Scott. 

“ Yes, sir.” 

“You did?” asked Tom Gray sharply. 

“ Yes.” 

“ Come! Out with it. What did you dis¬ 
cover? ” 

“ I discovered the proprietor on the second floor, 
and he discovered me at about the same time,” 
replied Stacy soberly, thrusting his hands deeper 
into his pockets and strolling away. 

“ Is there no way of suppressing that impossible 
young man? ” complained Emma. 

“ It is my opinion that you would miss him,” 
chuckled the colonel. “ Shall we see you in the 
morning? ” 

Tom said yes, and, after good-nights were said, 
the Overlanders started for their camp. Grace 
halted as they reached the rear of the hotel and 
pointed to the rear veranda. 

“ Suppose we have a look at the roof of the 
veranda to-morrow morning, Tom,” she sug¬ 
gested. “ My intuition tells me that the thieves 
made their entry by the way of the veranda 
roof.” 


92 


i 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Leave that to others/’ answered Tom. 

“ If they don’t think it worth while to take a 
look at the roof of the veranda, what then? ” 
laughed Grace. 

“ Have your own way, my dear. You will, any¬ 
way. If you must, however, ask Hippy to ac¬ 
company you. He is a better sleuth than I am, 
and, besides, I have work to do in the morning.” 

“ Oh, thank you, Tom. You are always such 
a dear, but you know I am a dutiful wife and 
never oppose my husband,” added Grace de¬ 
murely. A short time after that the girls were 
pouring the tale of the robbery into Lieutenant 
Wingate’s ear. Hippy put down his saddle and 
gave close attention to the story. 

“ I am sorry about that,” he said. “ The colo¬ 
nel’s friends appear to be very fine people. How 
do they think the robbery was committed? ” 

“ Someone said it was believed that one of the 
servants did the job,” Elfreda Briggs informed 
Hippy. 

After the party had broken up into groups, 
Tom told Lieutenant Wingate that Grace had the 
crazy idea that she knew where the robbers had 
entered the hotel. 

“ She wants me to go down there with her in 
the morning and sleuth it for clews. I told her 
to take you, and that you are a much better 
sleuth than I,” said Tom laughingly. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


93 


M Thomas, you never spoke a truer word in 
your life. Leave it to the brilliant brains of Grace 
Harlowe Gray and Theophilus Wingate to solve 
this dark mystery. By the way, how much did 
the thieves get? ” 

Tom said he did not know. Later on, Tom, 
Grace and Hippy arranged that she and Lieuten¬ 
ant Wingate were to go down to the hotel early 
in the morning, reaching there by daylight for 
their own private inquiry into the robbery. 

“ As I have said before, it’s a crazy idea, and is 
none of our business,” declared Tom. 

“ Ordinarily I should agree with that, but I 
have an idea in the back of my head that this 
affair may prove to be ‘ our business,’ ” answered 
Grace reflectively. 

“ Go to it,” was Tom’s smiling reply. 

Daybreak of the following morning found Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate and Grace strolling down towards 
the hotel. At that early hour there were no signs 
of activity about the place until both got a sudden 
scare when a garbage barrel in the rear of the hotel 
tipped over with a bang and a black bear ambled 
away. The bear, however, was more frightened 
than were the two Overlanders. 

“ That is what a guilty conscience does,” 
laughed Grace, referring to the start the bear had 
given them and to bruin’s hurried departure. 

Both stepped back and surveyed the rear ve- 


i 


94 


GRACE HARLOWE 


randa roof and the window through which en¬ 
trance might be gained to the small hallway. 
They saw that it would be easy for a person to 
gain the veranda roof, and that no obstacle would 
then intervene for entrance into the building. 
Hippy and Grace now examined the ground all 
along the rear of the house, working towards each 
other from opposite ends. 

“ Come here! ” called Hippy just loudly enough 
to reach the ears of his companion. 

“ What is it, Hippy? ” 

“ Here is where some person jumped down from 
the porch roof,” he said. “ See! The heel marks 
of a pair of boots are plain and recently made.” 

“ Yes, that is all very well, Hippy, but did they 
first climb to the roof? ” 

“ I don’t know, but I’m going to find out,” 
muttered Hippy. Lieutenant Wingate stood on 
the porch rail and peered up over the sloping 
roof. He was clinging to the edge of the roof 
with one hand while the other hand grasped a 
vine that grew up over the veranda roof. 

“ I can’t see anything that looks like a clew,” 
declared Hippy. 

“ Then you aren’t nearly so observant as I 
thought,” replied Grace. 

“ Eh? What’s that? ” 

“ The vine has been quite recently torn at the 
edge almost under your hand, just as if someone 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


95 


had used it to assist him in climbing to the roof, 
and there are the marks of someone’s boots on 
the rail where you are standing. Hippy, what 
is the matter with your eyes? ” laughed Grace. 

“ I never could see in the morning,” complained 
Hippy. “ You’re right, Brown Eyes.” Getting 
down, he examined the heel marks on the ground. 
Lieutenant Wingate then picked up the trail in 
earnest and followed the footprints a little way 
back of the hotel. He soon discovered that an¬ 
other pair of boots had joined the first, and to¬ 
gether had gone away in the direction of the 
Overland camp. 

Hippy followed these bootprints, Grace trail¬ 
ing along behind him for some distance, then they 
lost the trail entirely on hard ground, and w T ere 
unable to fincj it again. 

“ Well, what is your conclusion? ” questioned 
Grace as her companion stood thoughtfully gazing 
up towards their camp. 

“ My conclusion is that the hotel was entered 
from the rear, that two men were in the game, 
and that they headed towards our camp after com¬ 
mitting the robbery, and that is all I know about 
it. I must have been mending my saddle when 
they passed the camp. Grace, what have you 
in mind that you are so eager to find the thieves? 
Why don’t you drop it? ” 

“ Why don’t you? ” retorted Grace. 


96 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Because I saw last night that you had some 
idea in the back of your head that you didn’t care 
to talk about. What is it? Now is as good a 
time as any for a full confession.” 

Grace shook her head. 

“ No. Not yet. Even the bears have ears. 
But, Hippy, should I be right in my intuition, 
you and the rest of our party are certain to meet 
with a great surprise before we have done with our 
journey through the Yellowstone National Park,” 
replied Grace soberly. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


97 


CHAPTER X 

AT IT AGAIN 

T HE guide was stirring when Lieutenant 
Wingate and Grace reached the camp. 
Grace greeted him with a smiling good- 

morning. 

“ Mr. Wingate tells me that you discovered 
some bears nosing about the camp last night,” 
she said. 

“ Yes.” 

“ They did not get into our provisions, did 
they, Mr. Badger? ” 

“ No. I drove them off before they found the 
chuck.” 

“ Do you know, Jim, there’s something queer 
about the visit of those bears — I haven’t found a 
sign of a trail left by them. How do you ex¬ 
plain that? ” questioned Hippy good-naturedly. 

“ I don’t. There’s no accountin’ for bears,” 
grinned the guide. 

Hippy said he agreed with Badger on that 
point. 

“ By the way, Jim, did you hear about the 


7- Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



98 


GRACE HARLOWE 


robbery at the hotel last night? ” interjected 
Grace. 

“ Robbery? No. I ain’t been away from the 
camp. Who got robbed? ” 

Grace told him what she knew of the occur¬ 
rence, omitting, of course, the investigations of 
herself and Hippy, to all of which Badger listened 
with eager interest. 

“ That’ll give the Park guards somethin’ to do, 
I reckon,” he chuckled. “ But the chances are 
they won’t catch the thieves. There’s lots of good 
hidin’ places in the Park, and the guards don’t 
know all of them.” 

“ Suppose we have breakfast,” suggested Hippy. 
“ I hear our folks stirring.” 

“ I was just thinking. Let’s all go to the hotel 
for breakfast and leave Badger here to pack up.” 

Hippy agreed and shouted to his companions to 
dress for breakfast at the hotel. While they were 
dressing, Tom came into camp, after a long morn¬ 
ing hike, the purpose of which he did not mention. 

“ Have you been looking for bear signs? ” ques¬ 
tioned Grace half teasingly. 

“ I may have been,” replied Tom, grinning 
broadly. 

“ We are going to the hotel for breakfast, and 
incidently to report the result of our sleuthing 
trip this morning.” 

“ Did you discover anything, Grace? ” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


99 


“ Yes, but don't speak of it here. I think the 
girls are about ready." 

When the Overland Riders entered the hotel 
they were regarded with rather more interest than 
before, for on this morning every person was an 
object of suspicion. Colonel Scott nodded and 
smiled at the newcomers. 

As the party passed out of the dining room after 
breakfast, Hippy said in passing the colonel: 

“ There is something that I should like to say 
to you, sir, w T hen you have finished your break¬ 
fast." 

“ Meet me in the writing room," answered the 
colonel briefly. 

It had been agreed between Grace and Hippy 
that he should give Colonel Scott the result of the 
morning's investigation, so Lieutenant Wingate 
told the colonel the details of that investigation, 
to all of which the railroad man listened at¬ 
tentively. 

“ That's my theory to a dot! " exclaimed the 
colonel. “ These people think that the robbery 
was committed by some person in the hotel. I 
tell them it's nonsense. No one else appears to 
have had the sense to look at the rear of the 
house, and the probabilities are that, had they 
done so, they would have discovered nothing at 
all. I wish you would repeat to the manager of 
the hotel what you have said to me." 



> > > 


100 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Hippy nodded his willingness to do so. The 
manager came in hurriedly after receiving the 
summons, and Hippy repeated his story of the 
discovery of the morning. 

“ You are the young fellow that I met on the 
second floor last night, aren’t you? ” questioned 
the manager. 

“ No. That was Mr. Brown of our party, I 
believe.” 

“ Suppose you show me what you found at the 
back of the house,” suggested the manager. 

“ It were best not to do that,” answered Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate. “ It will attract too much at¬ 
tention, and, in case the thieves are about, will 
tip them off that you have a clew.” 

“ That is good sense,” agreed Colonel Scott. 
“ Better leave following the clew to the Park 
guards.” 

“ Yes, you are right. This is a matter for Colo¬ 
nel Appleby. If you will go with me to the com¬ 
manding officer of the post and give him the 
facts, I shall appreciate it. Kindly bring Mrs. 
Gray with you,” requested the manager, Hippy 
having given most of the credit for their dis¬ 
coveries to her. 

Grace was picked up on the way out, and the 
party, singly and in pairs, sauntered across the 
plateau as if they were bent on whiling away 
time. They met at the office of the commanding 




IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


101 


officer later on and gained an immediate audience 
with Colonel Appleby, to whom the facts were 
related by Hippy, added to here and there by a 
word from Grace. 

“ I congratulate you,” said the officer. “ You 
have rendered us a service. I shall now know how 
to proceed.” Colonel Appleby rang for his 
orderly. 

“My compliments to Lieutenant Chambers, 
and say that I should like to see him here as soon 
as possible. You say you lost the trail? ” he ques¬ 
tioned, turning to his callers. 

Hippy nodded. 

“ I think probably it may be found again farther 
up the mountain,” said Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ You are of the opinion that the robbery was 
not committed by any person in the hotel, 
then? ” 

“ I am reasonably certain that it was com¬ 
mitted by an outsider,” answered Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. 

“ Do you base this opinion wholly on the fact 
that the thieves headed up the mountain? ” 

“ No, sir. They were not shod as persons about 
the hotel would be likely to be. Both men wore 
heavy boots.” 

“Excellent reasoning. I shall put the guards 
at work on that theory, and thanks to your keen¬ 
ness we ought to catch someone. We shall, at 


102 


GRACE HARLOWE 


least, round up all suspicious characters. How 
long do you remain in camp here? ” 

“ Unless you wish us to delay moving on, we 
plan to leave within an hour or so.” 

The colonel said he knew of no good reason 
why the Overlanders should delay their departure, 
and added: “ If there be anything that we can do 
for you while you are in the Park we shall esteem 
it a favor to serve you. Colonel Scott, I also 
thank you for your assistance in this matter. I 
trust that none of you will speak to outsiders on 
this subject. Mr. Wingate, you w T ere in the ser¬ 
vice during the war, w T ere you not? ” he asked, 
turning to Hippy. 

“ Yes, sir. Ninety-fourth aero-squadron, fight¬ 
ing pilot. The young ladies of our party were 
members of the Overton College unit, and Mrs. 
Gray served as an ambulance driver at the front.” 

As Lieutenant Wingate rose to take his leave, 
Colonel Appleby and the others of the Overland 
party also rose. The commanding officer saluted 
and all hands returned the salute snappily, then 
left the office of the commander of the Park 
forces. Outside, they bade good-bye to Colonel 
Scott and started back towards their camp. 

They found that Jim Badger had struck the 
camp and was lashing the packs, whereupon all 
hands fell to and assisted in making ready for 
their day’s journey. They planned to make 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


103 


camp that night at the base of Electric Peak. 
Hats were waved in farewell as the outfit passed 
the hotel; then the ponies settled down to a 
steady jog and were soon lost in a cloud of dust. 

Prairie schooners, parties on horseback, bicycle 
squads and many others were passed on the gov¬ 
ernment road. Here and there the little white 
tents of other campers were observable some dis¬ 
tance back from the road, and early in the after¬ 
noon the Overland party halted to make camp. 
Leaving Badger to pitch their tents at the edge 
of a fringe of trees, the Overlanders set out with 
their ponies to visit the Upper Basin. They had 
not ridden far ere they found it necessary to dis¬ 
mount and tether their ponies, because the ground 
near the geysers was found to be insecure. 

As the Overlanders walked out over the thin 
volcanic crust each one was profoundly impressed. 
They picked their way amid steaming pools, now 
and then startled by a sudden column of steam 
and water that shot up near by. Gusts of heated 
sulphurous air fanned their faces. 

“ This must be the Devil’s Parlor,” suggested 
Stacy. 

“ I should say it is his workshop,” answered 
Miss Briggs. “ But it is a wonderful place.” 

“Not wonderful — terrible!” declared Nora. 
“ Were I suddenly to find myself alone here I 
know I should have an attack of heart failure.” 


104 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Pshaw! You're a tenderfoot/' accused Stacy. 

“ At least Nora wouldn't fall in," cut in Emma. 
“ By the way, Stacy, this is the opportunity of 
a lifetime to fall in. Why don't you? " 

“ I don't have to, that's why. Why don't you? " 

“ Because I keep my head level," retorted 
Emma quickly. 

Stacy made no reply but wandered off mutter¬ 
ing to himself as he gazed into the boiling pools, 
his forehead wrinkling in perplexity, for this 
phenomenon of nature was too much for him to 
understand. 

All at once the Overlanders were startled by a 
mighty yell from the fat boy. 

“ He’s at it again! " cried Elfreda. 

“ Where is he? Where is he? " wailed Nora. 

Stacy had suddenly disappeared from sight, 
though he had been standing only a few rods from 
them and they had been talking with him but 
a moment before. There was only one conclusion 
to be drawn and Tom Gray instantly voiced it. 

“ He has fallen in through the thin crust. 
Quick! Help me find him! " cried Tom, starting 
at a run for the spot where he had last seen the 
fat boy standing. 


105 


IN .YELLOWSTONE PARK 


CHAPTER XI 

STACY GETS INTO HOT WATER 

T OM was followed by the entire Overland 
party, Lieutenant Wingate sprinting 
along beside him. As they neared the 
spot where Stacy had last been seen, frightful 
howls were heard above the hiss of steam from 
numerous small geysers close at hand. 

“ Where is he? Oh, where is he? ” cried Nora. 

“ He has fallen in, of course,” answered Emma. 

“ Of course he has. Stacy! Oh, Stacy! 
Where are you? ” shouted Hippy. 

“ He isn’t very badly off or he couldn’t make 
a noise like that,” averred Tom. “ I reckon —” 
Tom suddenly felt the thin volcanic crust crumble 
beneath his own feet. He leaped back, but none 
too soon, for the crust on which he had been 
running but a moment before had caved in, leav¬ 
ing a narrow, dark opening. The others of the 
party stopped instantly, and stood gazing in awe 
at the dark opening. 

Hippy ran around the hole, treading on tip¬ 
toes, and a few seconds later he was peering into 


106 


GRACE HARLOWE 


another dark opening, about three feet in diam¬ 
eter, from which a faint cloud of vapor was rising. 

“ Chunky!” he shouted. “ Are you down 
there? ” 

“ Oh, wow! ” wailed the fat boy. “ Get me out. 
I’m boiled alive! Hurry! I’ll be dead in a 
minute more.” 

“ How far down are you? ” cried Tom, running 
to the scene. 

“A mile. Quick! I’m scalding. Can’t you 
get me out of this or must I die in this awful 
hole? ” 

Grace ran over and peered into the hole, and in 
the vapor could faintly make out the form of the 
fat boy. 

“ Quick, Tom, get him out! ” she begged. 

Hippy, however, had reached the scene first, 
fortunately finding firm footing at the edge of the 
hole. 

“ Hold up your hands so I can reach them, and 
stop that howling! ” commanded Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate severely. 

“ You’re pulling me in two,” wailed Stacy as 
Hippy got hold of his hands and began dragging 
the boy out. 

“ Please don’t pull him in two,” begged Emma. 
“ One Stacy is enough. I am positive that we 
couldn’t stand two.” 

“Emma! ” rebuked Nora. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


107 


Stacy was hauled out protesting and groaning. 
Grace and Elfreda sprang forward and took him 
in charge. 

“ Where are you the most distressed?” ques¬ 
tioned Miss Briggs. 

“ Feet. They’re scalded.” 

“ Your feet are a little red like your face, but 
they are not in the least scalded,” announced 
Elfreda after they had removed the boy’s shoes 
and stockings. “ Stacy Brown, I believe you are 
what we, in the army, used to call a malingerer — 
one who feigns illness. The skin on your feet is 
not even broken.” 

“ Too bad,” murmured Emma. 

“ What’s too bad? ” demanded Stacy. 

“ That you did not stay in until thoroughly 
done.” 

“ I — I don’t expect to get any sympathy,” 
complained Chunky, drawing on his stockings 
and shoes with many grunts and groans. 

“Why, it isn’t even as severe as a Turkish 
bath,” declared Tom, who had been leaning over 
the opening into which Stacy had fallen. 

“ Come, little broiler. We are going back now. 
Perhaps you may have better luck next time and 
get done to a turn,” comforted Emma. 

“ It will require something hotter than Turkish 
bath temperature to do that,” declared Lieutenant 
Wingate. 


108 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Nora linked arms with Stacy and assisted him 
down the terraces to the ponies, Stacy limping 
all the way, which all knew was assumed for 
the sake of gaining sympathy from his compan¬ 
ions, of which, however, the fat boy got little. A 
few moments later they were riding slowly down 
towards their camp at the base of the mountains. 
Reaching there, a brief explanation to Jim Badger 
brought a nod of understanding from the guide. 

“ They do fall in once in a while,” he observed 
dryly, which remark brought a laugh from the 
Overland Riders and a scowl from Stacy. 

“ This one always does,” answered Emma 
snappily. 

The Overlanders, deciding that they had had 
their fill of exploration for that day, rested in 
camp, the girls doing some much-needed mending, 
and the men discussing Electric Peak, and the 
stories they had heard about that strange tower¬ 
ing mountain. They learned from the guide that 
there was little information on the subject avail¬ 
able, excepting that it w^as said that persons who 
had attempted to reach the peak had met with 
strange experiences. 

“ Are — are we going to try to make it? ” ques¬ 
tioned Nora apprehensively. 

“ Of course we are,” replied Grace. 

“ Stacy can’t go on account of his feet,” re¬ 
minded Emma. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


109 


“ You don't think I'm going without them, do 
you? " retorted Stacy. “ Those feet have been 
with me all my life, and I don't propose to be 
separated from them now," he added amid much 
merriment. 

“ Re quiet, little boy," admonished Emma. 

Electric Peak towered above them, white and 
ghostly in the moonlight that evening, and they 
pondered over the strange tales told of the 
mountain's top. The ascent of that peak 
meant a difficult climb, but this did not dis¬ 
turb the Overlanders, who were accustomed to 
roughing it. 

That evening, final plans for the ascent of 
Electric Peak were made, the guide furnishing 
them with such information as he possessed, re¬ 
garding the best route to the top, though he 
admitted that his information was based wholly 
on hearsay. 

It was decided that the party should take their 
ponies with them as far as possible, so that they 
might carry their belongings and establish a camp 
on the mountain-side. Full of their plans for the 
coming day, the party turned in early and slept 
soundly. 

The camp-fire finally died down and the still¬ 
ness of the night was broken only by the moaning 
of a faint breeze at intervals, the occasional hoof- 
thud of a restless pony or the wild cry of a night 


110 


GRACE HARLOWE 


bird. Then suddenly a sharper note was injected 
into the peaceful night. 

A rattling fire of revolver shots, followed by 
shouts from Stacy Brown, brought the Overland 
Riders bounding from their beds in alarm. 

“ My ‘ pants ’! My ‘ pants 5 ! ” yelled the fat 
boy< “ Somebody’s stolen my ‘ pants ’! ” 


CHAPTER XII 

e A HIGH CRIME’ 


T OM and Hippy sprang out in their paja¬ 
mas, each with a revolver in hand. 

“ Badger! ” shouted Tom Gray. 

The guide came running into camp very much 
excited. 

“ Jim, what happened? ” demanded Lieutenant 
Wingate. 

“ I chased three cayuses out of camp and they 
tried to shoot me up. I seen them fusshT ’round 
the tents and I let them have it, though I don’t 
think I hit any of them,” explained the guide. 

“ Did they steal my ‘ pants ’? ” cried Stacy. 

“ I don’t know. I do know that ours are gone, 
too,” answered Tom Gray. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


111 


“ That looks like clothes over there/’ announced 
the guide, pointing to a heap on the ground a 
short distance from the tent occupied by Tom and 
Hippy. 

Stacy hobbled to the spot. 

“ Yes. Here they are,” he said, then uttered a 
wail. “ I’ve been robbed,” he cried. “ Every cent 
I had in my ‘ pants ’ is gone.” 

“ Was it much?” called Nora, who, with the 
other girls, was peering from their tent. 

“ Fifty cents! ” groaned Chunky, amid laughter. 

ft Tom, did they take your money, too? ” ques¬ 
tioned Grace. 

“ They took some of mine,” announced Hippy, 
who by this time was running a hand through the 
pockets of his trousers. 

“Yes. They got some from me, too,” added 
Tom Gray. “ Hippy, we are fortunate that we 
had most of our funds in our money belts. Girls, 
have you lost anything? ” 

After a few moments of excited searching for 
their belongings the girls called out that nothing 
had been taken from them. 

“ I drove them out before they got to the 
ladies,” spoke up Badger. “ How much did they 
get, Mr. Gray? ” 

“ Only ten dollars in bills, some small change 
and my watch.” 

Hippy had fared better. They had removed a 


112 


GRACE HARLOWE 


five-dollar bill from his trousers, but his watch, 
that he wore in his pajamas pocket, was still there. 
Tom and Hippy were angry, but Stacy, instead 
of being angry, was bemoaning the loss of his 
fifty cents. 

The girls, after hurriedly dressing, came out 
shivering. 

“ Tell us exactly what occurred, Mr. Badger,” 
requested Grace. 

“ Yes. Out with it,” ordered Tom. 

“ I was sleepin’ by the fire as I most always do, 
when I heard somethin’. It was one of the thieves 
failin’ over a pack. I saw them fussin’ over some¬ 
thin’ there. I reckon they was then goin’ through 
the clothes they had got from the men. I chal¬ 
lenged and they started to run. It was then that 
I took a shot at the fellers. They opened up on 
me and I chased them out of camp. You folks 
know the rest. Never had anythin’ like that hap¬ 
pen to a party that I was guidin’. I know there’s 
some bad ones in the Park, but they don’t gener¬ 
ally bother parties like this. They do hold up a 
stage when they git a chance. Reckon the guards 
ain’t doin’ their duty. This is a new lot of guards 
in the Park now. When we git back in the valley 
we’ll report the robbery, but I don’t reckon it 
will do any good.” 

“ I want my fifty cents,” grumbled Stacy. 

“Jim, you did a good job,” approved Hippy. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


113 


“ Had it not been for your vigilance we might 
have lost a lot more. We will remember you when 
we settle up at the end of our journey.” 

“Yes. We are much obliged to you,” agreed 
Tom Gray. 

“ Did you get a good look at them — would 
you know those men were you to see them again? ” 
questioned Grace. 

“ No. It was too dark where they was standin'. 
I couldn’t see what they looked like.” 

“We will look about after daylight and see if 
we can discover anything,” replied Grace. “ I 
would suggest that Mr. Badger sit up and watch 
the camp for the rest of the night.” 

Badger said he would. The Overlanders then 
went back to bed, Stacy still grumbling over the 
loss of his fifty cents. No further disturbance 
annoyed the camp that night. Shortly after day¬ 
light all hands were out looking for trail signs 
left by the night prowlers, but not even a foot¬ 
print was found, though Nora did pick up a red 
handkerchief that had undoubtedly been dropped 
by one of the thieves. This was of no value as 
a clew, for nearly all western riders wore them. 

The start up the mountain was made after an 
early breakfast, and the Overlanders rode away 
in high spirits, the guide leading the way, fre¬ 
quently halting to permit his charges to gaze down 
on the view spread before their eyes. The broad 

8 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 


114 


GRACE HARLOWE 


plateau below was dotted with clouds of vapor, 
and occasionally a tall column of water and steam 
from an erupting geyser reared high in the air. 
It was rough traveling, and now and then they 
were obliged to dismount and lead their mounts 
up some steep rise of rocks. A cold luncheon was 
eaten, and then the journey was resumed. 

“ Do you see any place that looks good to make 
camp?” called Hippy. 

The guide said he did not. 

“ There is a spring up yonder,” spoke up Stacy, 
pointing up the mountain. 

“ Where? How do you know? ” demanded 
Tom. 

“ Because there are green things up there,” 
answered Stacy. 

“Hm-m-m! You do see something, don't 
you? ” chuckled Emma. 

“ Yes, but I'm not always bragging about it,” 
retorted the boy. 

“ There appears to be a level spot to the right 
of that patch of green, folks,” said Hippy. 
“ Guide, shall we try to make it? ” 

“Yes. We can easily make it before sunset. 
I've never been up this far, but we ought to be 
able to git there in plenty of time. I reckon we 
better git off and walk now.” 

The Overlanders dismounted, Stacy with much 
grumbling, leading their ponies and cautiously 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


115 


picking their way over the rugged trail. It was 
six o’clock when they finally reached the spot 
indicated by Stacy Brown. His reading of the 
signs had been right, A sparkling spring of cold 
water was found there bubbling from the moun¬ 
tain-side. The guide dug a shallow pool below 
the spring, then a channel from the spring to draw 
the water to the pool. In this way he formed a 
basin from which the animals might drink with¬ 
out fouling the waters of the spring itself. The 
Riders were so interested in the proceeding that 
for the moment they forgot to get to work. 

“ Well? Shall we start something instead of 
watching Jim? ” demanded Hippy. 

“ What shall we do? ” asked Nora. 

“ Do? Why, make camp, of course. This is 
where we stay to-night.” 

“ I hope nobody steals my ‘ pants ’ again to¬ 
night,” grumbled Chunky. 

All hands thereupon set briskly to work to 
prepare camp, hoping to be permitted to 
pass a night in sleep and comfort, but their sleep 
that night was destined to be brief, for an 
exciting night was before them. 


116 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER XIII 

THE HEART OF THE TEMPEST 

S TACY, who had volunteered to build the 
fire because it required less effort than 
making camp, balanced the match between 
his fingers and thoughtfully regarded the black¬ 
ened sliver. 

“ Girls, what is the quickest tempered thing in 
the world? ” he asked. 

“ I should say it is Stacy Brown when some¬ 
one asks him to work,” laughed Grace. 

“You lose. What do you say, Uncle Hip?” 
“ I suppose you w r ant me to say ‘ I give it up/ 
eh?” 

“ No, I want you to answer the question.” 

“ A rattlesnake shedding its skin,” suggested 
Hippy. 

“ Wrong again. Give it up? ” 

“ Yes, yes,” laughed Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ A match! At the slightest irritation it flares 
right up and sputters and bites your finger. 
Frightful temper! ” 

“ Awful! ” grinned Tom. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


117 


“ I call it much more acceptable than Chunky’s 
jokes ordinarily are/’ approved Emma. “ Even if 
he did read it in last year’s almanac I think — ” 

“ Did you read it in last year’s almanac? ” de¬ 
manded Stacy. 

“ Well, no, but — ” 

“ Then don’t jump at conclusions, Miss Dean. 
It is a sure indication of brainlessness. Of course, 
among ourselves it doesn’t matter, but when out¬ 
siders are present you should endeavor to hide 
your shortcomings. I’ll give you another one. 
What is yesterday? ” 

“ Yesterday — yesterday? ” repeated Emma 
perplexedly. “ Why, I don’t know unless yester¬ 
day is yesterday.” 

“ There you go jumping at conclusions again. 
No, Miss Dean, yesterday is what to-day will be 
to-morrow.” 

The Overlanders groaned. 

“ Silly! ” rebuked Emma, her face rather red. 

“ Suppose you do something useful, instead of 
indulging in such silly talk,” suggested Nora. 

“ Yes, you might fetch the water for supper,” 
urged Grace. 

“ I have done my part,” retorted Stacy. “ I 
lighted the fire and Pm all tired out. My heart 
won’t permit me to do anything more until after 
supper.” 

“ Never mind, I’ll fetch it,” said Grace, picking 


118 


GRACE HARLOWE 


up the water bucket, which Stacy promptly took 
from her and went for the water, but, sitting down 
by the spring, he soon forgot himself in contem¬ 
plation of the scene spread before him in the 
valley far below. 

“ Beautiful view off there, isn’t it? ” mused the 
fat boy dreamily. 

“ Yes, very,” agreed Tom, strolling over to the 
spring to see what Stacy was doing. “ I’ll tell 
you what to do, Chunky. You take your fill of 
the scenery while we fill up on food.” 

Stacy came to at once, and made haste to fill 
the water bucket and hurry to the cooks with it. 

“ I guess not,” he objected. “ I never get so 
full of scenery that I have no room left for real 
food. Do you know, that wonderful scene down 
there is enough to move anyone to poetry? ” 

“ Stacy! Don’t you dare,” objected Elfreda. 
“ There are some things that we long-suffering 
Riders cannot endure. Your alleged poetry is 
one of them.” 

“ Don’t worry. I’m not going to waste any of it 
on you folks. My uncle once had a hired man 
who wrote ‘ pomes ’ as he called them, and — ” 

“ Is that where you acquired the habit? ” in¬ 
quired Emma, as the party sat down to their 
supper. 

“ Indeed not. I was bom with the gift of 
expressing myself poetically,” answered Stacy, 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


119 


narrowly observing the effect of his statement on 
the Overlanders. “ Poetic expression comes as 
naturally to me as partaking of food.” 

A peal of laughter greeted Stacy’s assertion. 

“What about the hired man?” questioned 
Grace, urging him on.' 

“ He used to sit up in bed, smoking his pipe, 
and write poetry after the rest of the family had 
gone to bed. One night he went to sleep over 
his ‘ pome ’ — ” 

“It must have been a lullaby that he was writ¬ 
ing,” suggested Emma demurely. 

“ As I was saying,” resumed Stacy after a 
withering glance in Emma’s direction, “ he went 
to sleep. His pipe set fire to my aunt’s com¬ 
forter and burned the quilt half up before the 
poet woke up and yelled ‘ fire! ’ Uncle grabbed 
up a pail of soft soap, and, running upstairs, put 
out the fire with it. When uncle got through, that 
comforter and the ‘ pome ’ were a soapy mess. 
You couldn’t have picked the ‘ pome ’ out of the 
lather with a magnifying glass.” 

The Overland Riders shouted, and Jim Badger 
grinned broadly. 

“ Your story is most entertaining, but I can’t 
say as much for your manner of telling it,” said 
Tom. 

“ That is about what aunt said of uncle’s man¬ 
ner of putting out the fire,” returned Stacy. 


120 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ What happened to the hired man? ” ques¬ 
tioned Elfreda, her eyes twinkling eagerly. 

“ Nothing. Rut uncle said he was so blamed 
mad that he had a good notion to set the hired 
man’s boots outdoors/’ was the fat boy’s solemn 
reply. 

“ Stacy! ” rebuked Nora. 

“Nora!” retorted Stacy, amid the laughter 
of his companions. 

Supper was a merry meal that evening, Stacy 
entertaining his companions until they had 
finished eating. Twilight deepened as they sat 
around the blanket that served for a table, and 
the shadows were thickening in the valley, blot¬ 
ting out the landscape. Drifting clouds were 
covering the peak of the mountain, some so low 
that it seemed to the campers as if they could 
stretch up their hands and touch the filmy 
masses. 

Tom Gray stretched himself, took a survey of 
the clouds and what he could see of the valley 
below them. 

“Jim, I reckon you had better give the tents 
an extra staking-down. It looks like a storm to¬ 
night,” he said. 

“ At the same time, someone should see that the 
ponies are well staked down,” suggested Grace. 

“ They can’t git away,” answered the guide, 
proceeding to make the little tents more secure. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


121 


> 

In the meantime, Tom had begun’to construct 
a shelter for the fire by setting up stones about it 
to protect it from the storm that was threatening. 
The party was now well above the timber line, 

• and the only material for fire was stunted growths 
and bushes. With them Tom Gray then built a 
lean-to in which their equipment was stored for 
the night. The Overlanders found the lean-to 
a most comfortable place during the evening, with 
the warmth of the campfire caught and held 
by it. 

Grace, who had strolled out with Elfreda to 
look at the weather, called to her companions to 
join her. 

“ Watch your step that you don’t get a fall,” 
she warned. “ Here is a sight worth looking at.” 

“ I don’t see anything worth looking at. Oh, 
wow! ” cried Stacy. 

A long, quivering flash of light far below them 
had caused Stacy to utter his sudden exclamation. 
The flash lighted up what appeared to be a large 
body of water in the valley below. 

“ Wha—at is it? ” wondered Emma apprehen¬ 
sively. 

“ Lightning, dear,” answered Grace. “ Isn’t 
it beautiful? ” 

“No. It frightens me. It was terrifying 
enough in the Sierras, but this is much more so.” 
Emma suddenly covered her eyes as a shaft of 


122 


GRACE HARLOWE 


light leaped up from a cloud bank. Then the 
flash sank back through the clouds, followed in¬ 
stantly by a heavy roll of thunder. 

“ Is — is there danger of its coming up here? ” 
begged Nora. 

“Yes,” replied Tom. “What is more, there 
is another storm brewing above us, but it may 
blow away as the wind from the southwest is 
brisk.” 

“ I reckon I’ll go to bed,” announced Stacy. 
“ Lightning never did make much of a hit with 
me.” 

“ Cheer up. There — there’s time enough yet,” 
encouraged Emma. 

“ Oh, come back here and enjoy the grandeur 
of this wonderful scene,” urged Grace. 

“ No, I don’t want to. I might spoil your fun. 
You watch it and tell me about it in the morning,” 
answered the fat boy. 

The sight was indeed a grand one. The storm 
was now in full force, but the thunder, heavy 
rolling booms, seemed far away, and the roar of 
the rain below sounded like a distant cataract. 
The Overlanders gazed on the awesome scene in 
silence. They watched and listened for fully an 
hour, until the storm abated, when the blackness 
of the night was only occasionally broken by dull 
red flashes of lightning. 

“It is about over for the present,” announced 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


123 


Tom, gazing first at the storm below, then at the 
clouds hanging overhead. 

“ Let’s go,” suggested Miss Briggs. 

All were agreed. Stacy already had gone to 
his tent, and now Tom and Hippy drew off their 
boots and stood them in the lean-to, after which 
they spread their blankets in their own tent and 
turned in, leaving Badger to sleep in the lean-to. 

“ Is that distant thunder that I hear? ” asked 
Emma as the girls were snuggling down into their 
blankets. 

“ No. It is Stacy snoring,” answered Grace. 

“ Do we have to listen to that distressing noise 
all night? ” complained Elfreda. 

“ Yes, unless you prefer to sleep somewhere 
else,” Nora informed her. “ Once started, noth¬ 
ing short of a tornado can break up Stacy’s night- 
warbling.” 

“ Then I will go outside,” averred Elfreda, 
getting up with her blanket wrapped about her. 

“ Come back!” cried Grace laughingly. “It 
may rain and then you will get soaked.” 

“ So will Stacy Brown if he doesn’t stop. My 
nerves are on edge now, and if I have to listen to 
him all the rest of the night they will be shattered 
for life.” 

Elfreda reluctantly returned to bed and, with 
both fingers stuffed into her ears to shut out the 
rasping sounds, she finally dropped off to sleep. 


124 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Tom Gray, however, unable to sleep, went out and 
rolled himself up in his blanket by the campfire. 
There he slept soundly. 

It was some time after midnight when the camp 
was aroused by a terrific explosion. The Over¬ 
land Riders leaped up in alarm and ran out into 
the open. They discovered Tom Gray dancing 
about, shaking the fire from his blanket. 

“ Did the camp blow up? ” yelled Stacy as he 
came running from his tent. 

“No. Lightning struck hard by,” answered 
Torn. 

“Foggy, isn't it?” observed Stacy in a weak 
voice. 

“ No, clouds,” replied Tom briefly. 

“ Are — are we going to have another storm? ” 
stammered Emma. 

“We are going to be in the heart of it,” Tom 
informed her. “ As I told you, there is a storm 
just below us and also one over our heads. If the 
two meet, look out.” 

A blinding flash, followed instantly by a terrific 
crash of thunder, threw some of the Overland 
Riders from their feet. The bolt had struck very 
close to them, and for the moment they were 
stunned, but Tom and Grace, first regaining their 
composure, shook their companions, assisted them 
to their feet and urged them to “ buck up,” as 
Tom put it. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


125 


The ponies could be heard neighing and stamp¬ 
ing, but the Overlanders generally were too much 
alarmed to give heed to the animals. 

A second quivering bolt, driven against the 
mountain-side from above, was answered almost 
instantaneously by another bolt that seemed to 
come from below. Then the artillery of nature 
opened up. Flashes and crashes followed each 
other in such close succession that they left no 
breathing spell for the frightened spectators. 

“ They've met! ” yelled Chunky, bolting for his 
tent. 

“ Lie down everyone! ” shouted Tom. “ You're 
safer flat on the ground! " 

The Overlanders threw themselves down just 
as a twisting gust of wind sucked the campfire 
up into the air. The burning embers swirled 
dizzily above their heads for a few seconds, and 
then were hurled scattering off into the black 
void below, leaving the camp of the Overlanders 
in deep darkness, save as it was lighted by flashes 
of lightning. A gale of wind was now blowing 
in swirling gusts, and rain was falling, a perfect 
deluge of it. 

“The tents, boys! Save the tents,” cried 
Grace. 

“Come, girls! We can help at that,” shouted 
Miss Briggs. 

“ The ponies! ” reminded Nora. 


126 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Til look after them. Tom, you and Jim take 
care of the camp. Rout out Stacy and make him 
work, and I’ll try to quiet the horses/’ roared 
Hippy, who then cautiously began feeling his 
way towards their mounts. 

The storm was now a succession of crashes with 
a continuous roar for a background, and it seemed 
as if one’s ear drums must burst under it. 

As he approached the tethering ground, Hippy 
called to the ponies — shouted to them and a 
faint whinny of welcome came back to him, for 
human companionship meant much to those dumb 
beasts at that moment of peril, a peril that was 
to become a reality to Hippy Wingate a few mo¬ 
ments later. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


127 


CHAPTER XIV 

OVERTAKEN BY DISASTER 

W HILE Hippy was soothing the horses, 
the others of the party, with the ex¬ 
ception of Stacy Brown, were trying 
to save their billowing tents. A yell from Stacy 
sent them hurrying to him. 

“ My tent’s gone! ” he howled. “ It went up 
into the air. Catch it when it comes down. Oh, 
wow! ” 

“ Stop that noise and help us to save the other 
tents,” commanded Tom Gray, grabbing the fat 
boy and jerking him from his blankets. 

“I — I can’t. I’m too scared.” 

“ T-t-t-t-tenderfoot! ” screamed Emma in 
Stacy’s ear, herself on the verge of hysterics. 
“ I — I’ll punish you if you do—on’t get busy! ” 
“ Get to work or I’ll trounce you! ” warned 
Tom. 

“ There goes my blanket,” yelled the fat boy, 
as, in taking it off, the wind caught and hurled 
the blanket down the mountain-side. Stacy was 
then put to work. 


128 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“Strike the tents! ” commanded Tom. “We 
shall lose them if we don't.” 

It was a lively few minutes that the Overlanders 
experienced, following Tom Gray’s order, but one 
at a time the tents were laid on the ground and 
held down by being sat upon. The equipment, 
such as had not been blown away, was underneath 
the canvas and was thus fairly well protected, 
but the Overlanders themselves were drenched to 
the skin and rivulets of water were running down 
their faces and bodies. 

“ This is awful,” moaned Emma. 

No one gave heed to her words. Even Stacy 
Brown had lost his voice, for he had not uttered 
a word since Tom ordered him to help with the 
tents. In the meantime, so busily engaged had 
the members of the party been that they had for¬ 
gotten all about Lieutenant Wingate. Hippy 
was having a strenuous time trying to keep the 
ponies from breaking their tethers and stamped¬ 
ing. Such a result would have been fatal to them, 
for in the darkness the animals undoubtedly would 
have plunged down the mountain-side to their 
death. 

After the storm had raged for a full hour there 
came a sudden blast that seemed as if it were 
tearing the mountain apart. So severe was the 
shock that the Overlanders were almost stunned. 
Emma toppled over and lay moaning, while the 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


129 


others struggled to pull themselves together. As 
for Hippy Wingate, with the blast he crumpled up 
in a heap, struggled for a few seconds, got to his 
feet, then fell forward and slid away into the 
darkness. 

The big blast was the last for that night. The 
storm, from that moment, abated and the clouds 
slowly drifted away. The stars began to show 
and then the skies cleared. 

Then for the first time since he had gone to 
look after the horses, the thought of Hippy oc¬ 
curred to the Overlanders. 

“ Hippy! ” cried Nora, springing up in alarm. 

“ The storm is all over, Hippy,” shouted Tom 
Gray. “ You may come in now.” 

There was no reply. 

“ Hippy! ” called Grace. 

“ Oh, something has happened to him,” wailed 
Nora, starting to run towards the tethering 
ground. 

“ Watch your step! ” warned Tom. 

All hands started after Nora, each one feeling 
instinctively that something was wrong with Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate. They ran shouting, but there 
was no response to their hails. 

“He isn’t here! Hippy! Oh, Hippy! ” wailed 
Nora Wingate. 

“ Take it easy. He must be somewhere about,” 
begged Tom Gray. “ Jim, get a light.” 


9 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



130 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ All right, if you’ll tell me where to find it,” 
retorted the guide. 

“ Your pocket light, Grace,” suggested Elfreda. 

“ I’ll see if I can find it,” answered Grace, hurry¬ 
ing back to her flattened tent. She soon returned 
with the pocket lamp and with it they began 
searching for Hippy. Not a trace of him did they 
discover. 

“ Mebby he fell down and rolled away,” sug¬ 
gested Jim Badger. 

Tom took the lamp from Grace and began 
creeping down the sloping rocks. 

“ You folks stay where you are,” he called. 

“ Have you discovered anything? ” called El¬ 
freda. 

“ Some broken-down bushes,” came the reply. 
“ Something went down this way.” 

“ Come back,” begged Grace, as Stacy also 
began clambering down the slope. 

“ Somebody must be a hero,” answered Stacy, 
continuing on. 

A shout from Tom Gray indicated that he had 
made a discovery. 

“ He’s got him,” called Stacy, relaying the mes¬ 
sage that Tom had hurled up from somewhere 
below him. 

“ Is — is he — ” began Nora. 

“ All right! ” Tom’s voice sounded far away. 

Tom had found his companion sitting up on a 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


131 


shelving rock at the very verge of a sheer drop of 
a hundred feet or more. Hippy was dazed. 

“ Wha—at — ” stammered Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. 

Tom shook him vigorously. 

“What happened to you, Hip?” questioned 
.Torn. 

“ I don’t know.” 

“ Were you struck by a bolt? ” 

“ I — I don’t remember. I reckon the moun¬ 
tain must have fallen on me. Hello, Chunky! ” 
he added as the fat boy came sliding towards 
them. 

Together, Tom and Stacy assisted Lieutenant 
Wingate up the mountain-side, Hippy gaining 
strength as they progressed, and by the time they 
reached the Overland party his mind had cleared. 
Nora threw herself into Hippy’s arms. 

“ My darlin’! ” she cried, and burst into tears. 

“ Uncle Hip got potted by lightning,” an¬ 
nounced Stacy. “ He ought to have stepped 
aside when he saw the thing coming.” 

“ Is the camp all right? ” questioned Hippy. 

Tom explained that they did not know, adding 
that the tents had been taken down when it was 
seen that they could not stand the blow. 

“ You come along and sit down while we look 
things over,” added Tom. 

Grace and Elfreda ran on ahead and got out 


132 


GRACE HARLOWE 


blankets from under the collapsed tents, which 
they spread on the ground and insisted that 
Lieutenant Wingate lie down. 

“ Why doesn’t some one start a fire? ” de¬ 
manded Hippy. 

“With what?” jeered Chunky. 

“ The lean-to has been blown away,” cried 
Emma. 

“ I reckon it’s over by the Springs Hotel long 
before this,” declared Jim Badger. 

“ Never mind,” soothed Tom. “We will build 
another lean-to when we need it. Just now we 
must manage to start a fire and dry out.” 

The guide was directed to gather fuel, which 
he did, shaking drops of water from twigs that 
he gathered. While he was doing this, Chunky 
began to sing. There was no harmony in his 
song, but he sawed away until he had sung 
several verses, unmindful of the jeers and threats 
of his companions. 

The end of the song was greeted with shouts 
of laughter. 

“ Is that the way you show your appreciation 
of my efforts to make you forget your misery? ” 
rebuked Stacy. “ The trouble with you folks 
is that you have no harmony in your souls. I 
have. ” 

“ You may have it in your soul, but it never 
gets as far as your lips,” retorted Emma Dean. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


133 


“ The harmony evidently gets switched off on 
some other line. Don’t try it again, little boy.” 

“ I agree with you, Emma,” answered Tom 
soberly. 

“ We will stand for it this time,” promised 
Hippy. “ But take my advice and never repeat 
the performance among civilized people, unless 
you are courting sudden death. Frankly, Chunky, 
being struck by lightning is preferable.” 

“ Hippy, you said it that time,” chuckled 
Emma. 

In the meantime the skies again became over¬ 
cast and a fine drizzle began falling. At Grace’s 
suggestion the tents were raised, but they were so 
water-soaked that the interiors were soon as wet 
as the ground outside. This discovery brought 
groans and plaints from the party. 

“ What’s the odds? We cannot be any wetter 
than we are,” comforted Grace Harlowe. 

“ That is all very well, but I want to sit dowrn 
and I don’t want to get rheumatism,” protested 
Elfreda. 

“ That’s what is the matter with Stacy Brown. 
He has rheumatism of the voice,” agreed Grace. 

“ Huh! Some persons not more than a thou¬ 
sand miles from here have rheumatism of the 
brain, which is worse,” retorted the fat boy sar¬ 
castically, which brought another laugh from his 
companions. 


134 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ So I have observed,” agreed Emma, and Stacy- 
subsided. 

Grace changed the subject by asking Hippy to 
tell them what had occurred at the tethering place. 
Hippy said that the ponies were badly frightened, 
but that he had succeeded in quieting them. So 
far as his own disaster was concerned, he knew 
little. 

“ All I know is, that all of a sudden I didn’t 
Enow anything,” added Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Why put it in the past tense? ” questioned 
Emma sweetly, amid laughter. 

By this time Badger had laid the fire and was 
trying to light it, but the sticks merely sputtered 
and went out. 

“ Why don’t you men help him? ” urged Grace. 
“ Come, Stacy, you have not done a thing to¬ 
night.” 

“ Right! ” agreed Tom. “ He is the laziest man 
in the Yellowstone.” 

“ No. That isn’t the reason. You forget that 
I have a weak heart,” reminded Stacy. 

Emma retorted that it was his bump of in¬ 
dustry, not the heart, that was weak. 

“ That’s right, insult me. You know I can’t 
resent it because I dare not excite myself,” re¬ 
minded' the fat boy. “ I’ll teach you how to light 
the fire if you promise not to stir me up. If you 
do, I might die on your hands.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


135 


Stacy wasted many matches in trying to strike 
them against his damp clothes. 

“ Let me show you how to light a match when 
everything is wet,” said Tom. Placing the head 
of a match in his mouth, closing his teeth over the 
wood, Tom then drew the match sharply outward. 
The result was a sudden flare, which he applied to 
the tinder that Hippy had brought from his kit. 
A crackling, snapping blaze soon leaped up 
through the damp brush, developing into waving 
plumes of flame. 

“ Great! ” cried the Overlanders admiringly. 

“ My, but you would make a dandy fire-eater in 
a side show,” declared Stacy. “ How did you do 
that? ” 

“ Never saw that done before, eh? ” chuckled 
Tom. 

“ Not outside of a circus.” 

“ Watch me closely and I will show you how it 
is done,” volunteered Tom Gray, repeating the 
performance, observed closely by Stacy and his 
companions. 

“ Pshaw! I can do that, too.” 

“ I shouldn't advise you to try it,” warned 
Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ I’ll try anything once,” declared Stacy, put¬ 
ting the head of a match in his mouth and giving 
it a quick outward jerk. The result was that the 
burning head of the match broke off in the fat 


136 


GRACE HARLOWE 


boy’s mouth because he had clenched the stick too 
itightly between his teeth. 

Blowing, howling and jumping about, the fat 
boy frantically ejected the flaming match head 
from his mouth. 

“ Wather, wather! ” yelled Stacy thickly. “ I’m 
on fire! ” 

“ Of all the driveling idiots,” groaned Tom, 
trying hard not to laugh. 

“ I think we are all agreed on that subject,” 
nodded Elfreda. 

“ Did it bum oo’s precious little mouth? ” 
begged Emma solicitously. 

“ Did it bu—bu—urn me? Oh, no. I just 
wanted to take the chill off the inside of my 
mouth, that’s all. Didn’t you ever try it? ” re¬ 
torted Stacy. 

“ I hope I am not so silly as to try anything 
like that,” returned Emma. 

“ One never knows until one tries,” muttered 
Stacy. “ Greatest thing in the world to make you 
forget that you’re cold. Swallow a whole handful 
and I’ll promise that you won’t feel cold in the 
highest altitude. Some one give me a drink of 
water — cold water.” 

The Overlanders were laughing heartily now. 
Badger was replenishing the fire and Stacy, sip¬ 
ping at a cup of water, was caressing his mouth 
and feeling altogether out of sorts. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


137 


“We know how to build fires where there 
aren’t any, don’t we? ” laughed Tom, slapping 
the fat boy between the shoulders. 

“ Ouch! I reckon we do — I do,” gulped 
Chunky. 


CHAPTER XV 

A STRANGE EXPERIENCE 

W ITHIN an hour the Overlanders were 
sufficiently dried out to permit them to 
go to bed with some comfort. Blan¬ 
kets had been -warmed before the fire, and, even 
though the tents and the ground were damp, they 
found a large measure of comfort after they had 
tucked themselves in for the night. Two there 
were of the party, however, who were not wholly 
comfortable. One was Lieutenant Wingate, who 
ached all over, and the other was Stacy Brown, 
whose mouth was so sore that it hurt him to 
swallow, and he was restless all night. 

The morning dawned bright and beautiful, 
with skies of the deepest blue, unmarred by drift¬ 
ing clouds. After a consultation, following break¬ 
fast, it was decided to leave the ponies and make 
their way on foot to the top of Electric Peak. 


138 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Can we make it and back here the same day? ” 
questioned Grace, glancing over at Jim Badger. 

“ If you don’t stay up there too long I reckon 
you might,” he replied. 

“ At least we must take sufficient food along 
to last us until to-morrow,” urged Grace. 

“ Yes. Don’t forget the eats. I can’t live with¬ 
out food,” reminded Stacy. 

Tom suggested that Stacy remain at the camp 
with Badger. 

“ Nothing like that doing,” replied the fat boy. 

“ I should think you would prefer to remain 
here, in view of the fact that you have a sore 
mouth,” urged Miss Briggs. “ That climb is going 
to be regular hard work, you know.” 

“ I won’t stay, and that’s flat,” retorted Stacy. 
“ If you folks go, I go.” 

“ If you wished him to remain in camp you 
should have insisted on his accompanying us,” 
spoke up Emma. 

“Yes, that’s so,” agreed Hippy. “Stacy, do 
you know what you are? ” 

“ Sure I do. I am the brains of the Overland 
outfit and the leading sunshine dispenser.” 

“ You mean trouble dispenser,” suggested Tom 
laughingly. 

“ Not only that, Stacy, but you are as contrary 
as a government mule,” added Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


139 


“ That’s right. Call me names, but don’t get 
the idea that you can cheat me out of any real 
fun that comes along on this dull trip,” retorted 
young Brown. “ I know what you want. You 
want me to stay here and fight bears trying to 
steal food — you want me to fight them with a 
sealed rifle. Of course I could do it if I wished, 
but I don’t wish. What’s the matter with Jim 
Badger? ” 

“ I’ll stay,” offered the guide. 

“ You will have to carry a heavy pack on your 
back, Stacy, if you go,” reminded Grace teasingly. 

Stacy demurred at this, declaring that his heart 
would stand no such strain. 

“ Don’t carry the pack on your heart. Carry 
it on your back,” suggested Emma amid much 
laughter. 

The guide was directed, in case of trouble, to 
fire gun signals. 

“ What about the seals on the locks? ” ques¬ 
tioned Grace, nodding to Hippy, who had made the 
suggestion. 

“ That’s so. Make smoke signals, Jim. In case 
of our being delayed, make them anyway.” 

For the next half hour the Overlanders were 
busy selecting such equipment as they thought 
would be needed on their journey to the top of 
Electric Peak. Stacy compromised with his com¬ 
panions by consenting to carry two blanket rolls 


140 


GRACE HARLOWE 


which he said was all his heart would stand, and 
the party started up the mountain full of spirits 
and eagerness for the adventure that lay before 
them. 

Within an hour after the start the high altitude 
began to affect the Overlanders, and especially 
Stacy, who had an attack of nosebleed. The party 
halted until the fat boy recovered, then resumed 
their climb, with continued rising spirits. Emma 
was laughing almost hysterically, and Stacy again 
indulged in “ song.” 

“ We have never before felt such queer effects 
from mountain climbing,” Grace confided to her 
husband. 

“ It’s the altitude,” he said. 

“ I don’t agree with you,” differed Grace. “ I 
feel it too strongly.” 

“ What ails us, Loyalheart? ” cried Elfreda, ad¬ 
dressing Grace. “ We are acting like a lot of 
schoolgirls on their first picnic.” 

“ Tom says it is the high altitude, but I think 
he is wrong.” 

“ I could almost fly away on the wings of the 
morning,” laughed Emma. 

“ Spread your wings and take off,” suggested 
Lieutenant Wingate. “ You will find the air and 
the rocks rather bumpy, but — ” 

“It won’t hurt; she’s too soft,” interjected 
Stacy. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


141 


" Thank goodness I am not a thickhead,” re¬ 
torted Miss Dean, laughing immoderately at her 
own witticism. 

“ It is my opinion that you all have an ex¬ 
aggerated attack of the willies. How is your heart 
now, Chunky? ” questioned Hippy teasingly. 

“ It beats all,” was Stacy’s prompt reply. 

The Overland Riders groaned dismally, then 
burst into peals of laughter. The merriment con¬ 
tinued until luncheon had satisfied their hunger. 

“ I am inclined to believe that last night’s elec¬ 
tric storm has something to do with our peculiar 
sensations to-day,” averred Elfreda. “ I feel as if 
I were attached to an electric-light wire. Don’t 
you? ” 

“ Never having been in that situation I can’t 
say that I do feel that way,” answered Grace, 
laughing merrily. “ I must admit that I do feel 
queer, though.” 

As they got higher their peculiar sensations 
increased rather than diminished. 

“ Tell you what I’m going to do, folks,” shouted 
Stacy. “ After we get to the top I’m going to beat 
you all back to camp. I’m going to jump off the 
mountain, I am. Hurrah! Come along, Emma, 
and take the leap with me.” 

“ Perish the thought! Perish it with a big, 
big perisher,” replied Emma. “ I probably shall 
slide, but leap? Never! ” 


142 


GRACE HARLOWE 


It was mid-afternoon before they called another 
halt, and by that time Emma and Nora were al¬ 
most exhausted from their activity and nervous 
excitement. 

“ I would suggest that we make coffee before 
going further,” urged Grace. 

“ Yes, let’s eat,” agreed Stacy. 

“ I did not say ‘ eat,’ I said coffee,” returned 
Grace. “ You may eat all you wish from your 
dry rations, but we shall cook nothing but coffee.” 

Coffee was made and did them all good. It 
steadied them, and made them feel that nothing 
was too difficult for them to undertake. 

“ Did not the guide say we could make this 
journey and return in one day? ” demanded 
Grace, gazing up at Electric Peak which seemed 
farther away than when they started out. 

“ He meant that we could climb up and jump 
down in a day,” answered Hippy. 

It was latei in the afternoon when the Overland 
Riders fully realized that some mysterious change 
had taken possession of them. Emma Dean de¬ 
clared that she tingled all over her body, and 
Nora confessed to a similar sensation. 

Stacy Brown laughed boisterously, then sud¬ 
denly leaped to one side, suspiciously eyeing the 
spot on which he had been standing. 

“ What is the matter with you? ” demanded 
Tom Gray. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


143 


“I — I reckon there must be fleas up here,” 
declared Chunky. “ They are biting me all over.” 

About this time Hippy Wingate, who was 
laughing at Stacy’s suggestion of fleas, suddenly 
changed his position. 

“ There is something peculiar about this place,” 
he cried. “ Tom, don’t you get it? ” 

“ No.” 

“ Come over and stand here by me.” 

Tom did so, but hurriedly moved away. About 
this time Grace and Elfreda, finding a smooth 
ledge, began to dance. Tom pulled them from the 
ledge and told them to keep away from it. The 
faces of the two girls grew a shade paler. 

“Torn, Tom! What is it?” breathed Grace. 
“ What does this mean? ” 

“ Mean? It means that this mountain is a huge 
Leyden jar heavily charged with electricity — a 
sort of storage battery. I saw last night that there 
were peculiar electrical phenomena on this moun¬ 
tain, and I fear we haven’t seen the worst of it 
yet.” 

“ So far as I am concerned we have,” promised 
Elfreda Briggs. 

“ Stacy, why don’t you try it again? You 
might as well finish the experiment that you be¬ 
gan,” suggested Emma. 

“What, I?” 

“ Yes, you.” 


144 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Do you know what I am going to do? ” de¬ 
manded the fat boy. 

“I am sorry to say that no one knows what you 
will do next.” 

Stacy shaded his eyes and gazed down the moun¬ 
tain-side. 

“ I am going to make for the camp just as fast 
as these legs of mine will carry me, and take my 
word for it, they are going to work overtime this 
afternoon.” 

“ Remember you have a weak heart,” reminded 
Grace laughingly. 

“ I'm not going to walk with my heart. It is 
my legs that are going to get busy this time, but 
I'm going to make a flying start and take a tobog¬ 
gan slide down that stretch of rocks,” announced 
Stacy, making a run for a smooth sloping surface 
of the mountain. 

“ Not that way, Stacy!” shouted Tom Gray 
warningly. 

His warning was too late. Stacy had started, 
not for the short slope up which they had climbed, 
but towards another and longer one a few yards 
to the right of it, a slope that led to a drop of 
hundreds of feet of almost empty space, as Tom 
and Hippy knew. 

Both men made a dash for the boy. He turned 
his head to make a face at them, caught his toe 
on a rock and plunged headlong down the slope, 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 145 

shooting down and disappearing over the edge, 
uttering frightful howls. 

The Overland girls screamed and Emma and 
Nora covered their eyes to shut out the sight of 
Stacy, as they supposed, going to his death. 


CHAPTER XVI 

A MOUNTAIN OF DISTRESS 

E’S killed! Pie’s killed!” wailed 
Emma. 

“ Do something! Hippy, why don’t 
you do something? ” urged Nora hysterically. 

“ If you will tell me what to do I’ll try. Stacy 
is probably clone for. No one could take that 
drop and live,” answered Lieutenant WTngate. 

“We must make an effort, Hip,” answered 
Tom. 

“ I trust to Stacy’s luck to get him through, but 
please make haste,” begged Grace. 

“ How? ” demanded Tom. 

“ Climb down the way we came up. In that 
way w r e shall be able to see what lies beyond the 
slope on which he slid down,” suggested Grace 
Harlowe. 



10 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 






146 


GRACE HARLOWE 


The Overlanders moved with one accord, slid¬ 
ing and stumbling over their trail as they de¬ 
scended, keeping their gaze to the right of them 
in hope of seeing Stacy. The fat boy, however, 
was not yet within view, and they looked aghast at 
the side of the mountain down which he had 
fallen. 

“ You see,” said Tom, nodding to Grace. “ No 
hope at all.” 

“ I don’t agree with you. Hark! ” Grace held 
up a warning hand. 

“I hear it! It’s Stacy! It’s Stacy! ” yelled 
Lieutenant Wingate. “ Where are you? ” 

They caught the fat boy’s reply, but failed to 
understand what he said. That did not matter. 
The great truth was that he was still alive. 

“ Where are you? ” roared Hippy. 

The reply was a long-drawn-out howl. 

“ He is somewhere below us,” announced Tom. 
“ Let us get further down. His being alive passes 
all comprehension.” 

The Overlanders climbed down over the rocks, 
making all haste, all watching eagerly for a sight 
of the unfortunate Stacy. Now and then one 
of them would shout, and the answer that came 
back each time seemed nearer than before. At 
last Stacy’s voice sounded directly to the right 
of them. Grace focused her binoculars on a ribbon 
of green bushes in a crevice in the rocks below. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


147 


“I see him! ” she cried. “He is just beyond 
the middle of those bushes.” 

“ Are you hurt? ” called Tom Gray. 

“I — I’m killed,” wailed the fat boy. “ Get me 
out of this.” 

“ How long can you hold on? ” demanded 
Elfreda. 

“ Until the bushes give way. Roots are loose 
now,” wailed Stacy. “ You’ll have to hurry.” 

“ Get the ropes,” urged Grace. 

“ We can’t reach him with a rope from here,” 
answered Tom. 

“ Oh, Hippy, what can we do? ” moaned Nora. 
“ If he lets go he will be dashed to death.” 

Elfreda, who had been calmly surveying the 
scene, recommended that they all return to the 
point from which Stacy fell, and descend the 
slope on the other side. 

“ I think that, if we can get down on that side, 
we shall be near enough to be able to cast a rope 
to him,” she said. 

The two men agreed with her, and, after telling 
Stacy what they proposed to do, all hands began 
clambering up the mountain again. Reaching 
their former position, it was seen that the route 
they had planned to follow to reach Stacy 
would be perilous. Tom said the girls must re¬ 
main where they were while he and Hippy made 
the descent. 


148 


GRACE HARLOWE 


The Overlanders had two ropes, Grace’s lariat, 
and a small Manila rope that they always carried 
on their mountain climbs. These ropes Tom and 
Hippy took with them and began cautiously pick¬ 
ing their way down the rocks on the right-hand 
side of the slope. It took them nearly an hour to 
reach a point opposite the boy. 

“ Are you there, Chunky? ” shouted Tom. 

“ Part of me is. The rest is dangling. If you 
don’t hurry I’ll soon be a hamburger steak at the 
base of the mountain.” 

“ Hold up your hand so we may see where you 
are,” directed Tom. 

Stacy thrust a cautious hand from the bushes, 
then as cautiously withdrew it, but the two Over¬ 
landers saw it. 

“ Listen, boy! ” called Tom. “ We are going to 
try to cast a rope to you, but do not make a quick 
move in grabbing it. Once you have the rope in 
your hands, pass it about your body under the 
arms and tie it securely; then, when we give the 
word, let go of your support. We will do the 
rest. Understand? ” 

“ Yes.” 

Tom made a cast, but the rope fell far short 
of the mark. He made several other attempts, 
failing each time. 

“ Let me try it,” requested Lieutenant Wingate. 
Before casting, Hippy tied a small stone to the end 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


149 


of the rope, then swinging six feet or so of the 
rope in the air, he let go. The stone plunked into 
the bushes. 

A mighty howl from Stacy greeted the throw. 
The stone had hit the fat boy a glancing blow. 

“ I’m killed! ” yelled Stacy. “ You hit me.” 

“ Grab it! ” shouted Tom. “ Make fast and do 
it right. You aren’t much hurt or you couldn’t 
yell like that. Let us know when you are ready.” 

Several moments elapsed before Stacy an¬ 
nounced that he had fastened the rope about him 
as directed. Having to work with one hand, while 
he clung to his supports with the other, made slow 
work for the boy. 

“ If you are positive that you are well tied up, 
let go and don’t be frightened if you slide a little. 
We shan’t let you go far,” encouraged Hippy as 
Tom took hold of the rope with him. 

“ Let go! ” ordered Tom Gray. 

There followed a moment of hesitation, then 
a violent tug on the rope, accompanied by a howl 
from Stacy Brown as he released his hold on the 
bushes, and felt himself sliding down the moun¬ 
tain-side. He was brought up with a jolt, and 
skidded dizzily sideways as the rope grew taut. 

“ Let go! You’re taking the breath out of me! ” 
he begged in a gasping yell. Stacy had tied a 
slip-knot which now held him in a vise-like grip. 

“ Take hold of the rope with both hands and 


150 


GRACE HARLOWE 


pull. That will relieve the strain/' advised Tom. 
“ We will have you up here in a few moments." 

It was a bruised and battered Overland Rider 
that Tom and Hippy dragged up a few minutes 
later, Stacy Brown gasping and moaning. 

“Stop it!" commanded Tom sternly. “You 
should be thankful that you are alive." 

“ I'm not alive. I'm dead from the neck 
down," protested Stacy. 

After the boy had been permitted to rest for a 
short time, the two started up the mountain-side 
with him. They made him walk, but assisted him 
most of the way. 

Chunky met an enthusiastic welcome when he 
reached the girls. They made him comfortable 
on blankets while the party consulted as to what 
should be done, for night was rapidly approaching. 

“Shall we go on to the top?" asked Elfreda 
who had been examining Stacy. “ Our patient is 
perfectly able to travel." 

“No!" replied Tom Gray with emphasis. 
“ Personally, I have had enough." 

Grace expressed some disappointment, but said 
she would defer to the decision of the others. 

“ I am for going down instead of up," spoke up 
Emma. “ Of course I am not afraid, but I fear 
Chunky will surely get himself and us into more 
difficulties. The poor child has had enough for 
one day." 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


151 


Emma’s companions agreed with her, but Stacy 
did not. He said that timid girls like Emma might 
be afraid to climb to the top of Electric Peak, but 
that men felt no such fears. 

“ Of course you do not include yourself in that 
group,” answered Emma without even looking 
towards Stacy. “ A little more electrifying might 
do you good.” 

“ I’ve got too much electricity already. I’m full 
of it,” averred Stacy, sitting up. “ When I get 
back to Chillicothe, Missouri, I’m going to rent 
myself out to the traction company to furnish 
power for the street cars, I am.” 

“ Don’t do it,” begged Emma. “ You surely 
would fall off your trolley so often that the line 
would be perpetually blocked.” 

Groans greeted Emma’s retort. 

“ I am amazed at you, Emma,” reproved Grace. 

“ And I blush for you,” added J. Elfreda Briggs. 

“ Blush for Chunky. He cannot do it for him¬ 
self,” retorted Emma. “ What are we to do — 
go up or down or remain w r here we are? ” 

Grace suggested that they descend and spend 
the night where they had camped the previous 
night. 

“ What! Get caught between a couple of siz- 
zlers as we did last night? ” demanded Chunky. 

“ We will go down. It really is not prudent to 
remain here,” replied Tom. 


152 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Yes. Chunky has accumulated so much elec¬ 
tricity that we Overlanders are in danger of being 
struck by lightning most any time now/’ averred 
Emma. 

“ Pack up and get going/’ urged Lieutenant 
Wingate. 

A few moments later the party was picking its 
way down the mountain-side. The nerves of each 
member of the Overland outfit were on edge, 
and Stacy Brown was nursing the many bruises 
that he had sustained in his tumble. Going down, 
while not such hard work, was attended with much 
more difficulty than had been the ascent. Now 
and then someone would lose his foothold and 
have a tumble. Fortunately, nothing worse than 
a few bruises and black and blue spots resulted 
from these tumbles. The Overlanders laughed at 
their mishaps, especially at the fat boy’s, for 
Stacy got more falls than any of the others and his 
clothes suffered proportionately. 

Darkness overtook the Overland party ere they 
could locate their camp where Badger was await¬ 
ing them, so they decided to make camp where 
they were. A small cooking fire was built and 
dinner cooked; then, being thoroughly worn out 
from their trying experiences, they rolled up in 
their blankets on the ground and went to sleep, not 
to awaken until the sun blazed down into their 
faces next morning. An early start for camp was 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


153 


made, but as they progressed and failed to discover 
it, they began to wonder that they saw no smoke 
signals from Jim Badger. About mid-afternoon, 
however, a thin spiral of white smoke was dis¬ 
covered some distance to the right of them. 

“ There's the place," announced Tom. 

Hippy was of the opinion that it was not their 
camp. 

“ Of course it is," answered Grace. “ We are a 
long way out of our course, and we don’t know the 
trail at all, so watch your step, folks." 

Thus warned, the Overland Riders exercised 
more care. Fortunately, none got bad falls, but 
the going v/as difficult, and they were frequently 
obliged to rest. It was a weary and much mussed- 
up party that dragged itself into camp, shouting 
halloos to warn the guide of their approach. 

“ I’m starved! Got anything loose about this 
camp? ’’ cried Chunky, as the weary girls threw 
themselves down uttering sighs of relief. 

“ Water’s boilin’. It’s been boilin’ since yester¬ 
day. I’ll have coffee for you right smart. Where 
you folks been all the time? ’’ 

“ We’ve been up in Nature’s electric plant. 
Hurry if you expect to save my life. I’m near 
dead. Even my brain has ceased to operate," de¬ 
clared Stacy. 

“ He has just discovered it," murmured Emma 
wearily. “ The poor child! " 


154 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ What happened? ” questioned Badger, frying- 
pan in hand. 

“Not a word until I get something inside of 
me,” insisted the fat boy. “ What I need most of 
all is —” 

“ Have you any calves’ brains, Mr. Badger? ” 
questioned Emma sweetly. 

“ Now, Emma! That wasn’t nice of you,” pro¬ 
tested Nora, amid laughter. 

“ If you are in such haste why not turn to and 
help Jim get luncheon? ” suggested Grace. 

“ I tell you I have a weak heart. You know I 
can’t stand violent exercise,” replied Stacy, throw¬ 
ing himself down by the campfire. 

The Overlanders shook their heads. 

“ Hopeless! ” muttered Tom. 

“ We propose to move immediately,” Grace in¬ 
formed the guide. “ Is there any news? ” 

“ Yes, I reckon there is,” answered the guide 
rather hesitatingly, Grace thought. “ Two fellers 
has been watchin’ this camp since yesterday, and 
I reckon they ain’t doin’ it for any good. That 
ain’t all, either. There’s more news. There’s been 
another robbery down to the Springs Hotel, and 
mebby they think we did it.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


155 


CHAPTER XVII 

GREASING THE GEYSER 

<4 \ "IT THAT’S that? ” demanded Tom Gray 

sharply, wheeling on the guide. 

▼ ▼ “ What reason have you for making 

such a statement? ” 

“ Because two Park guards been here this 
mornin' askin' questions.” 

“ What questions? ” interjected Miss Briggs. 

“ Who we was, what we was doin' here and 
whether we had seen any other suspicious charac¬ 
ters.” 

“Any others? Meaning besides Mr. Brown? ” 
cut in Emma. 

“ Was it much of a robbery? ” questioned Grace. 

“ The guards said it was, and that they was 
lookin' into every outfit in the Park, hopin' to find 
the fellers who did this job and the other one.” 

“ What about the men who, you say, have been 
watching our camp? ” asked Hippy, regarding the 
guide keenly. 

“ Last night I woke up and found them nosin’ 
about where the ponies was. I didn’t dare shoot 


156 


GRACE HARLOWE 


for fear of hittin’ one of the horses. I yelled at 
’em and they run away. I seen ’em again just 
before daylight, then to-day I seen one of ’em 
watchin’ from a distance. That’s all I know about 
it.” 

“ Were they Park guards? ” asked Tom. 

“ They might have been, but I reckon they 
wasn’t.” 

“ What we need in this outfit is our old Pony 
Rider Boys. They’d solve the mysteries of the 
Yellowstone National Park in short order. Let 
us forget our troubles in food,” urged Stacy, setting 
an example for his companions by helping himself 
to a plateful. 

“ The guards, I suppose, did not voice a sus¬ 
picion of any particular persons, did they? ” asked 
Miss Briggs. 

The guide shook his head. 

“ We shall have to dismiss Chunky,” nodded 
Emma. “ I fear the Overlanders may lose their 
reputations soon if —” 

“ Emma! ” rebuked Nora. 

“ Then, to change the subject, I presume there 
can be no harm in asking, where we go from here? 
Do we move to-day or remain here over night? ” 

The guide suggested that, if the party were 
agreeable, they might move down into the valley 
and continue farther up into the basin. 

“ You know we haven’t seen ‘ Old Faithful ’ nor 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


157 


any of the other big geysers yet,” he said in re¬ 
minder. 

“ Yes, let us get away from this horrid moun¬ 
tain,” urged Emma. “ I have had my fill of it. 
I suppose, however, that Stacy will make a grand 
wind-up by falling into a geyser and coming out 
a regular lobster, in appearance at least.” 

“ You’re wrong. But I’d rather be a lobster 
than a broiler,” retorted Stacy. 

Immediately after luncheon, badinage ceased 
and the camp presented a scene of activity in prep¬ 
aration for the start for the valley and the upper 
basin. Stacy, as usual, killed all the time possible 
in trifling, doing practically no real work at all. 
The Overland Riders were under way within the 
hour, glad indeed once more to be in the saddle, 
and just before nightfall halted to make camp at 
the edge of a thick growth of slender pines a short 
distance from “ Old Faithful ” herself. “ Old 
Faithful ” was steaming away lazily, a thin cloud 
of vapor drifting from its mound-shaped cone. 

“ Is — is there any danger in being so close to 
it?” questioned Nora, gazing at “ Old Faithful” 
a little apprehensively. 

“ Not if the old spouter is left alone,” answered 
the guide. 

“Eh?” Stacy was instantly on the alert. 
“ Jim, what if she should get clogged? ” 

“ I reckon she’d bust.” 


158 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“Wow! ” muttered the fat boy. “ When does 
she erupt again? ” 

“ I don’t know. By the looks of things I should 
say she’d just had one. If that’s so it'll be about 
an hour before there is another spout/’ the guide 
informed them. 

“ I guess we can stand it if ‘ Old Faithful ’ can/’ 
observed Stacy. “ Can’t she be hurried any? ” 

“ It’s been done/’ grinned the guide. 

“ Plow? ” demanded the fat boy eagerly. 

Grace gave the guide a warning look which 
was wholly lost on Jim Badger. 

“ By greasin’ the geyser,” he replied. 

“ What with? ” interjected Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ With butter, of course,” replied Emma. “ But 
don’t you waste our butter in experiments unless 
you wish to be everlastingly unpopular in this 
outfit.” 

“ I don’t intend to,” answered Stacy. “ I can 
use butter to better advantage than greasing gey¬ 
sers with it. That reminds me, I haven’t had 
anything to eat in a century or so. When do we 
have supper? ” 

“ What you need is brain food, though I fear it 
would break the outfit to supply you with enough 
to do you any good,” spoke up Emma. 

“ Get to work and help settle camp,” advised 
Tom. “ We wish to finish supper before it is time 
for ‘ Old Faithful ’ to erupt.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


159 


This appealed to Stacy who set to work with 
more than his usual industry. Supper was soon 
served and eaten, and it was decided to leave the 
dishes as they were until after the eruption. 
Everyone hurried to the basin, finding “ Old 
Faithful ” still steaming lazily. 

“ She’s getting ready for business/’ announced 
the guide after a keen glance into the simmering 
pool. 

The Overlanders did not understand how he 
knew this, but he seemed to be quite confident. 
The party had sat about gazing at the pool for 
more than half an hour, but still nothing hap¬ 
pened. Stacy yawned. 

“ I guess she must be waiting for someone to 
feed her a pound or two of oleomargarine/’ he 
observed. 

Tom walked over and gazed into the pool. He 
saw that there was more water there than when 
he first looked, and as he peered in, a gentle 
bubbling began and the water became troubled. 

“ I reckon it is time we were getting out of 
here,” he warned, walking briskly away. 

“Oh, pooh! Who’s afraid?” jeered Stacy. 

“ Persons of limited mental equipment seldom 
are,” observed Emma. 

A cloud of steam burst suddenly from the cone 
of the geyser with a thrilling hiss and a roar. The 
Overland Riders stood not upon the order of their 


160 


GRACE HARLOWE 


going, Stacy Brown leading the rush to get out 
of the danger zone. 

“ Run! ” shouted the guide. 

There was little need for his warning. The 
Overland Riders were already running at top 
speed. 

The menacing hiss of the geyser grew louder, 
and the cloud of misty spray mounted higher and 
higher. Then a vast column of water rose into 
the air, with clouds of white steam. 

“ Oh, look! Look! ” cried Nora, clapping her 
hands excitedly. 

“ Wonderful! A sublime spectacle,” breathed 
Elfreda Briggs. 

Higher and still higher mounted the column 
until it had reached a height estimated at one 
hundred and fifty feet. There it hung, a glisten- , 
ing tower, showering a thin mist of hot spray 
over a wide area. For seven minutes “ Old Faith¬ 
ful ” continued to play into the air, then the 
column gradually shortened. 

“ She didn’t make it,” cried Stacy. 

“ Make what? ” demanded Tom. 

“ The sky.” 

“ Fiddlesticks,” grumbled Tom Gray in dis¬ 
gust. 

“ Even at that she came nearer to doing so 
than you ever will,” retorted Emma. 

At last the column sank back into the basin, 



“ Run ! ” Shouted the Guide. 
161 

11 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 

































IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


163 


where, after being violently agitated for fully ten 
minutes, the waters settled down to their ac¬ 
customed quiet. The spectacle had surpassed any¬ 
thing that the Overlanders had ever seen. 

Twilight was over the valley as they returned 
to camp, awed beyond the powers of words to 
express. 

“ Has an estimate ever been made as to the 
quantity of water thrown out in a single eruption, 
Jim? ” questioned Miss Briggs. 

“ I've heard it said by scientific fellers that a 
million and a half to two million gallons of water 
is squirted into the air at a time, but I never 
figgered it out for myself,” said Badger, grinning. 
“ I reckon one guess is as good as another.” 

“ That’s enough to do the family washing for all 
Chillicothe for a whole year,” announced Stacy. 

“ Where’s that? ” questioned the guide. 

“ In Missouri. I wish I had that geyser in our 
back yard at home. I wouldn’t have to lug water 
to fill the wash boiler any more, would I? ” 
chuckled the fat boy. “ I could take my baths 
in it, too.” 

“You might wash your own laundry in it, I 
suppose,” suggested Emma. 

Grace gave Miss Dean a quick, keen glance 
and shook her head. 

“Yep,” grinned the guide. “All you would 
have to do would be to dump a few cakes of soap 


164 


GRACE HARLOWE 


in the basin, soap your clothes well and throw 
them in. A regular lazy man’s job, and it wouldn’t 
cost you a cent except for the soap.” 

“ Say, that wouldn’t be so bad, would it? ” 
cried Chunky. 

“ Why don’t you try it? ” urged Badger. 

“ I believe I will. I haven’t had any washing 
done since we reached the Park.” 

“ You look it,” agreed Hippy. 

“ Perhaps I do, but I don’t look any more run 
down than you and the rest of the outfit do, even 
though I did fall off a mountain and roll a mile or 
two. May I wash my clothes in one of these 
basins, Mr. Badger? ” 

The guide nodded. 

“ In ‘ Old Faithful ’? ” 

“ No, no! ” objected the guide. “ You mustn’t 
fool with her. The old lady objects to bein’ fooled 
with and she might take it out on you. I’ll show 
you a basin where you can do your washin’ to¬ 
morrow mornin’, but you mustn’t let anyone see 
you because the Park guards might not like it.” 

“ That will be fine,” smiled the fat boy. “ Who 
else wishes to do washing? ” 

“ Oh, we might as well all come in, if your 
experiment is a success,” promised Tom. 

“ Miss Dean, do you wish to let Nature wash 
your clothes for you to-morrow? ” questioned 
Stacy. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


165 


“ I thank you, no. I am quite able to do my 
own laundry work. Happily I am not so indolent 
as some persons I know of.” 

“ Oh, well. I don’t know that I care. It is my 
patent anyway. Say, Jim, how long will it take 
to do the washing in the geyser? ” 

“ Well, I reckon that depends on the clothes,” 
said the guide, grinning broadly. 

Stacy said he believed his were pretty well soiled 
after his experience on Electric Peak. 

“ You said it, Chunky,” agreed Lieutenant 
Wingate. “ Tom, what do you say to our joining 
Stacy in his ‘ blue Monday ’ operations to¬ 
morrow? ” 

“ It might be a good idea. Girls, want to do 
your washing in a geyser basin? ” asked Tom 
laughingly. 

“ No! ” shouted the Overland girls in chorus. 

“ We do our laundry from day to day as we go 
along,” Grace informed him. “ Besides, I don’t 
like the geyser idea. Is there no park regulation 
about such a thing, Mr. Badger? ” 

The guide shook his head. 

“ Not that I know of, but it’s just as well not 
to have any guards about at the time.” 

“ Jim, how much soap will it take to make a 
nice washerwoman’s suds in this laundry geyser? ” 
asked Stacy. 

“ I reckon half a dozen cakes or so,” replied 


166 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Badger in a voice just loud enough for the fat boy 
to hear. 

“ I’ll grab some to-night, but don’t say anything 
about it, as the others would accuse me of extrava¬ 
gance.” 

Jim nodded his understanding. 

“ Easy, wasn’t it?” murmured Emma as she 
strolled leisurely past the fat boy. 

“ What is easy? ” demanded Chunky sharply. 

“ Oh, never mind if you don’t know.” 

“ Is this a joke you are trying to play on me? ” 
bristled Stacy. 

“ It may be,” answered Emma, passing on with 
chin elevated, Stacy regarding her frowningly. 

Three times that night, ere the Overlanders 
turned in, did “ Old Faithful ” rear its huge 
column of steam and water into the air. In the 
darkness the column was a huge pale spectre 
of the night. The sight of this ghostly monster, 
and the hiss and the roar, sent shivers up and 
down the backs of the Overland girls. 

“ This is no place for a superstitious person, 
which, thank goodness, I am not,” declared 
Elfreda Briggs. 

Quite early in the evening a Park guard stopped 
at the camp to see who the campers were. He 
recognized the party, having seen them at the 
Mammoth Springs Hotel some days before. The 
guard told them of the second robbery at the 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


167 


hotel, his story coinciding with what Jim Badger 
had already told them. 

Grace Harlowe was thoughtful, and took no part 
in the discussion that followed. Strange thoughts 
were passing through her mind, with Stacy Brown 
regarding her narrowly out of the corners of his 
eyes. 

“ Wonder what’s in the back of her head? ” 
mused the fat boy after the guard had left and the 
Overlanders were preparing for bed. 

“ I trust that you may not dream of your future 
home to-night,” teased Stacy as Emma said good¬ 
night. 

“ Don’t worry. You won’t be there,” retorted 
Emma airily. “ And please sleep out doors so 
as not to influence our dreams,” she added. 

The Overlanders were awakened several times 
that night by the eruptions of “ Old Faithful,” but 
finally they ceased to hear it and slept soundly. 

After breakfast next morning Stacy was directed 
by Jim Badger to go to the pool beyond the big 
geyser. This pool he called the “ Little Fountain,” 
and appeared to be eager to have Stacy get there 
and finish his work as early as possible. The Over- 
landers thought this was because of the guide’s 
anxiety lest Chunky be interrupted by the Park 
guards on their early morning rounds. 

Stacy gathered up a pair of trousers, two shirts, 
some handkerchiefs and socks, and with these 


168 


GRACE HARLOWE 


partly dragging on the ground, his pockets full of 
bars of washing soap, he started for the “ Little 
Fountain,” skirting the edge of the pine forest on 
his way. Tom and Hippy said they would be 
along in a few moments. 

Not more than five minutes had elapsed since 
Stacy's departure when he was heard to utter a 
yell. Hippy sprang out where he could see along 
the outer edge of the slim-treed forest.- 
“ He’s at it again! ” cried Lieutenant Wingate. 
What he saw was the fat boy making for camp 
at top speed. Then Hippy discovered the cause 
of his companion’s haste. Two bears were on the 
trail of Stacy Brown and under full headway. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


169 


CHAPTER XVIII 

PAJAMAS FLOAT ON HIGH 

66 ^ 'IT THAT is it? ” cried Tom. 

%/ 4 / “ Bears are after him! Turn out! ” 

* * The Overlanders rushed out. Stacy 

was bare-headed, having lost his hat, and even the 
girls in their fright could not but laugh at the 
ludicrous sight of the fat boy pursued by bears. 

“Yell, all of you! ” shouted Tom Gray. “It 
may frighten them off.” 

“Run if the beasts get close!” cried Hippy, 
snatching up a blanket and starting towards 
Stacy. 

Tom Gray, instantly divining his companion’s 
purpose, also grabbed a blanket and sprinted after 
Hippy. Despite the noise that the Overlanders 
were making, the bears came right on. 

Hippy, still in the lead, made ready his blanket, 
as the foremost bear now headed directly for him. 
In the meantime Stacy passed the two men on his 
way to camp, yelling with all his might, and fairly 
dove into his tent. 


170 


GRACE HARLOWE 


As the foremost bear charged Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate he deftly threw his blanket over the animal’s 
head and side-stepped. About this time Tom 
Gray performed a similar service for the second 
bear. 

“ Run for it! ” yelled Hippy, and the two Over¬ 
land men ran for camp. 

The bears, however, did not follow but were 
trying to extricate themselves from the tangle into 
which they had gotten themselves in the blankets. 
When they had finally freed themselves there was 
little left of the Overland blankets. The trick, 
however, had served its purpose. The animals 
were now thoroughly frightened, and, having 
vented their rage on the blankets, reared and 
looked sharply about them. Not a human being 
was in sight at that moment, the Overlanders, at 
Tom’s suggestion, having ducked in among the 
trees. Seeing no one, the bears, uttering angry 
growls, and apparently satisfied that they had put 
their enemies out of business, ambled away and 
were seen no more. 

It was Lieutenant Wingate who, shortly after¬ 
wards, hauled Chunky from his tent feet first. 

“ Di—id you kill ’em? ” stammered the fat boy. 

“ No, of course we didn’t. We gave them two 
blankets to chew on. I think we shall have to 
charge those blankets up to you,” threatened 
Hippy. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


171 


“ Take it out of the bears’ hides/’ advised Stacy. 
“ I’m not settling their bills.” 

“ Look here, Stacy, what did you do to stir 
those animals up? ” demanded Tom Gray. 

“ Noth —” 

“ Stacy! ” warned Emma. “ Don’t quibble. 
They were very angry about something.” 

“ I didn’t do much of anything, but —” began 
Stacy and paused. 

“ Yes, yes,” urged Hippy. 

“ Well, it was this way. I saw a couple of bear 
cubs playing leap frog on the green, and — and 
I — I thought I’d catch one of them and bring 
it to camp for a mascot.” 

The Overlanders groaned. 

“ I — I nearly got my hands on one little beggar, 
when all at once out of the nowhere, that old she 
bear and her mate came at me with all sails set. 
Then I legged it for home.” 

“ You poor fish! Didn’t you know any better 
than to fool with a bear cub? ” demanded Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate. “ You might have known that 
the mother bear was not far away.” 

“I — I didn’t think there were any old bears 
about the place. I lost my clothes, too. Mebby 
the bears ate them. If they did who is going to 
pay me for my ‘ pants ’ and the rest of the stuff? 
Will you answer me that question, Uncle Hip? ” 

“Your clothes are distributed along the way 


GRACE HARLOWE 


172 

where you dropped them. You may go get them 
now with perfect safety/’ Tom told him. “ The 
bears have taken to the timber with their cubs 
long before this.” 

“ Too bad we can’t shoot them/’ muttered 
Stacy. 

“You can, but it’ll cost you money if you’re 
caught at it,” said the guide. 

“ One experience in that direction is enough,” 
answered Stacy. 

“ I thought you were going to do your family 
washing,” reminded Emma. 

“ Yv^ell, I reckon I will if I can find my shirts 
and the rest of the outfit, but I won’t go out 
alone. You folks have got to come with me. 
Emma, you stand around and chase the bears 
away. All you have to do is just to look at ’em 
and they’ll run.” 

“ Humph! After once setting eyes on you, the 
rest of the world would be altogether lovely,” re¬ 
torted Emma, elevating her chin disdainfully. 

“ We will go with you,” volunteered Lieutenant 
Wingate. “ It doesn’t appear to be safe to let 
you out of our sight.” 

“ No. Stacy might fall into some hole and get 
parboiled. Not that it would not do him good, 
but the difficulty is that he might not be wise 
enough to know when he was done and come out,” 
volunteered Emma Dean. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


173 


“ Do you mean to insinuate that I’m under¬ 
done? ” demanded Chunky belligerently. 

“ Certainly not, Stacy. You are quite capable 
of speaking for yourself.” 

“ Say, you good people, it seems to me that our 
soap is disappearing rather fast,” called Tom Gray 
from his tent. 

Stacy winked solemnly at the guide, a wunk 
that was not lost on either Grace or Emma. 
Tom, at this juncture, came out with a shirt, a 
pair of pink pajamas and some underwear and a 
cake of soap in his hand. 

“ All ready,” announced Tom. “ Stacy, you 
come with me. Jim, you say that the pool just 
beyond ‘ Old Faithful ’ is a good place in which to 
wash our clothes? ” 

The guide nodded, but did not offer to ac¬ 
company the party to the “ Little Fountain.” 
Hippy, after gathering up some of his own soiled 
garments, started on after the pair, followed by 
the entire Overland party. Emma was chuckling 
to herself. 

“ You seem to be amused about something,” 
said Grace, eyeing her companion suspiciously. 

“ I am.” 

“ Has the missing soap anything to do with 
your merriment? ” questioned Grace. 

“ It may have,” admitted Miss Dean. “ Then 
again it may not.” 


174 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ I will take the first part of your answer as 
the correct one,” laughed Grace. 

“ You pay your money and take your choice. 
It is my belief that we folks are about to witness 
a most entertaining spectacle,” said Emma, nod¬ 
ding towards Stacy, who was gathering up his 
belongings on his way to the “ Fountain,” a small 
pool of bubbling, boiling water. 

Reaching the pool Emma and Grace saw him 
slip several bars of double X soap into the boiling 
pot, while Tom Gray, after critically eyeing the 
pool and its surroundings, sat down beside it. 
After sousing his garments in the water he drew 
them out steaming and proceeded to soap them 
liberally, the Overland girls offering expert advice 
on laundering clothes. Stacy, who was standing 
just back of Tom, kicked the latter’s soap into the 
“ Fountain ” the instant that Tom Gray laid it 
down beside him. When Tom reached for the 
soap he failed to find it. 

“Confound the thing! I must have let my 
soap slip into the basin. Stacy, have you soap 
to spare? ” asked Tom irritably. 

“ Yes. You may have my cake.” 

The soap, that Stacy handed to his companion 
a moment later, went the w^ay of the other cakes 
almost instantly, and the pool was soon covered 
with hot suds. At sight of this, Grace and Emma 
drew back somewhat hastily, and Hippy, who was 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


175 


about to wet and soap his own clothes, thought 
better of it and also stepped back a little. Hippy 
felt that something was going to happen, but 
having had no experience with geysers, he could 
not imagine what that something might be. Tom 
Gray, however, was too busy sousing and 
scrubbing his clothes to give much thought to what 
was going on about him. 

Stacy Brown’s garments were floating about in 
the pool while he steered them here and there with 
a pole, thrusting them down as far as they would 
go and watching them leap to the surface. 
“ Greasing the geyser ” was great sport for him, 
but the fat boy was disappointed that nothing 
exciting followed. 

Nature’s washing machine surely was doing its 
work slowly, but well. That was plainly to be 
seen. Tom Gray’s pink pajamas were floating 
about in the suds, the legs far apart, greatly to the 
amusement of the spectators. 

“ Thomas, those pink legs are trying their best 
to get away from each other,” chuckled Stacy. 

“ If the colors aren’t fast they surely will get 
away too,” observed Emma, amid groans. 

“ That was a good one,” averred Stacy. “ Al¬ 
most as good as I could do myself.” 

“ What is that boy up to? ” whispered Elfreda, 
addressing Grace. “ I know it is mischief, but 
just what it is I have been unable to discover.” 


176 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“Sh-h-h-h! He is greasing the geyser,” 
whispered Grace. 

“ With what? ” 

“Soap! In a few moments, if all goes wrong, 
you will see something, as I understand geyser¬ 
greasing.” 

Even as Grace Harlowe uttered the words, 
Elfreda saw a column of steam and water shoot 
into the air with a hiss and a roar. Above the 
noise of the erupting “ Little Fountain,” which at 
first had appeared to be so harmless, might have 
been heard the yells of Stacy Brown. The ex¬ 
plosion had taken him wholly unawares. Tom 
Gray was no better off, though he did not howl. 
When the geyser erupted so suddenly, Tom had 
fallen over backwards, but he was up and out of 
the way in an instant, ere the boiling water could 
reach him. Stacy was less fortunate. He was 
not fully aroused to the peril of his position until 
he felt a shower of hot water spraying over him. 

Stacy uttered a yell and bolted from the im¬ 
mediate vicinity of the pool, while his companions 
were shouting with laughter, Tom Gray adding 
his voice to the merriment. 

“ Did you lose anything, Tom? ” teased Grace. 

“ Only a shirt and pajamas,” answered Tom, 
grinning sheepishly. 

“ You forget your reputation as a dignified 
gentleman,” interjected Emma. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


177 


“ Where are your things, Chunky? ” questioned 
Hippy, laughing immoderately. 

Stacy eyed the column of water before replying. 

“ I’ve got two shirts, a pair of ‘ pants ’ and a 
wad of handkerchiefs, some socks and a sombrero 
hat up there somewhere in the air. They ought 
to get well aired, eh? ” 

“ There go Tom’s pajamas! ” cried Elfreda. 

For a few seconds the pajamas were suspended 
in the air above the column of water. They were 
then joined by Tom’s shirt, and both garments 
suddenly disappeared. Next, Stacy Brown’s hat 
made its appearance. It, too, was as suddenly 
whisked out of sight. He hoped that his clothes 
might drop to safe ground where he could rescue 
them, but they did not. All the garments re¬ 
mained with the angry geyser, appearing only oc¬ 
casionally before the delighted gaze of those of 
the party not intimately interested in them. 

“ So, this is one of your little pleasantries, is 
it? ” chided Grace, pulling Stacy’s ear. 

“ Ouch! I don’t know what you mean.” 

“ Yes, you do, Stacy Brown. As a precaution¬ 
ary measure, however, I believe that, were I in 
your place, I should keep the fact to myself. You 
know that husband of mine may not see the humor 
of the situation.” 

“ Do you think he suspects? ” asked Stacy 
apprehensively. 


12 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



178 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ No, but he may. I know that Emma does.” 

“ All right. I don’t care. Say, folks,” called 
Chunky. “ Can’t you help me get my ‘ pants ’ ? 
Thomas wants his pajamas, too.” 

“If I may be permitted to offer a suggestion, I 
should advise you to wait until the water spout 
dies down, then dive into the pool and rescue the 
clothes,” volunteered Emma. 

“ No, thank you. I was in hot water the other 
'day and I still feel like a boiled potato with the 
skin peeling off. You know how I feel.” 

“ Never having been a boiled potato or a 
cabbage head, I don’t,” responded Emma. 

“ There goes the water down. Now all hands 
fall to and rescue Thomas’s pajamas and his shirt,” 
urged Hippy. 

The Overlanders caught but a fleeting glance of 
the garments, which were quickly sucked down 
into the depths of the pool. 

“ When does this Fountain of Perpetual Youth 
spout again? ” demanded Tom Gray. 

“ The guide says that it is irregular,” answered 
Grace. “ Perhaps within the hour, or perhaps not 
■until to-morrow.” 

Tom growled long and deeply. 

“ Will — will my shirts come up?” stammered 
Stacy. 

“ It would serve you right if they did not,” 
smiled Grace. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 179 

“ Well, they’d better. There is one consolation, 
Tom. Our duds will be well laundered when they 
do come out, won’t they? ” 

“ Yes, when they do,” sighed Tom, and the 
Overlanders burst into a peal of merry laughter. 
“ Hereafter I wash my clothes in a creek — in 
one that has no kick to it. Who suggested this 
fool thing, anyway? ” 

“ The guide,” dodged Stacy. 

The “ Little Fountain ” did not erupt again 
that day, so the guide was left to watch it while 
the Overland party went off for a few hours’ ex¬ 
ploration among the other geysers of the Great 
Basin. 

Nothing more was seen of the missing gar¬ 
ments that day, but when day was just break¬ 
ing next morning the party was aroused by a 
shout from the guide. 

“ She’s going to spout again! ” he cried. 

Pajama-clad, Stacy and Hippy raced for the 
“ Fountain.” Each had snatched up a pole with 
which he hoped to spear the missing clothing. 
The others of the Overland party followed as 
soon as they had made themselves presentable, all 
laughing and rubbing the sleep out of their eyes. 

The “ Little Fountain ” was steaming and 
hissing angrily, and sent up an unusually vicious 
spurt just as Stacy reached it, whereupon the 
fat boy beat a hurried retreat. 


180 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“There they are! ” shouted Tom espying his 
much-wanted garments as he glanced into the 
pool. “Fve got mine!.” 

But had he? True, the pink pajamas and a 
shirt were seen floating about on the bubbling 
waters, while, with the pole that Hippy had 
passed to him, Tom was trying to tow them in. 

“Hiss! Boom! ” With a roar the steam jet 
shot up once more, carrying the articles of 
clothing fully a hundred feet into the air. It 
was as though these pieces of clothing had been 
shot out of a cannon. Stacy had ventured 
close to the pool, but now he and Tom Gray 
ran for safer ground. 

As for the spectators, they could not keep 
back their laughter. Higher, yet higher, soared 
the pink pajamas, a blotch on the water’s rain¬ 
bow of colors. 

“ The tendency of men’s wear is upward,” 
averred Emma Dean demurely. 

That was the last the Overland Riders saw 
of the lost garments that day. During the 
next three days, however, Tom’s and Stacy’s 
things were quite frequently on exhibition in 
the air, supported by a column of hot water, 
but it seemed impossible to recover them, so the 
campers finally decided to abandon their quest 
and move on in search of other adventures in the 
Yellowstone Park. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


1SI 


CHAPTER XIX 

FISH COOKED ON THE HOOK 

T OM GRAY and Stacy Brown came in for 
much chaffing as the party rode away. 
The Overlanders teased them unmerci¬ 
fully over their experiences at the “ Little 
Fountain.” 

In the meantime Tom had devoted some 
thought to the occurrences that led up to the 
loss of his clothing, and little by little was 
getting nearer to the truth than his companions 
realized. He finally arrived at the conclusion 
that someone, probably Stacy, had played a trick 
on him. Then there was the missing soap, and 
the suds on the surface of the pool. It looked 
suspicious. There was, however, satisfaction in 
the conclusion that, though he had lost a shirt and 
a pair of pink pajamas, Stacy had suffered an 
even greater loss. 

“ Jim, where may I find a store? ” he asked, 
turning to the guide. 

“ Not till we get back to the Springs,” answered 
Badger. 


182 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Why a store? ” inquired Grace. 

“ I was thinking of buying a new outfit for 
Chunky.” 

“ For Chunky? May I ask why this sudden 
attack of benevolence? ” laughed Miss Briggs who 
had overheard the conversation. 

“ It isn’t benevolence. It is remorse/’ spoke up 
Emma. “ Tom is conscience-stricken because he 
permitted Stacy to get mixed up with an irritable 
geyser.” 

“ I consider it very fine of Tom,” said Grace 
glowingly. “ Yes, by all means get Stacy a new 
outfit. I should say it would be an excellent 
idea, too, to buy soap.” Grace gave her husband 
a quick glance. 

“ Soap, eh? What do you know about the 
soap, Emma? ” questioned Tom, turning to Miss 
Dean. 

“ Good soap makes good suds,” responded 
Emma innocently, whereupon both Grace and 
Tom laughed heartily. “ You are a pretty good 
sport after all, and not nearly so stupid as you 
look,” was her parting shot. 

That day the Overland Riders reached the 
Continental Divide and made camp for the night 
beside a little lake whose waters flowed both ways, 
one side sending its quota of water towards the 
Pacific, the other starting on its long journey to 
the Atlantic. At this point they left the govern- 



IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


183 


ment road next morning and took to the rougher 
traveling across country, heading for the Sho¬ 
shone Geyser Basin, a wild and remote section of 
the Park. 

Arriving at the Basin, they made camp on 
Shoshone Lake, nearly eight thousand feet above 
the level of the sea. 

The air was chill there, and blankets were a 
great comfort, but the bracing atmosphere put 
new life into every member of the Overland party. 

From the Shoshone region they crossed the 
Pitchstone Plateau, a broad mountain-bordered 
plain, then headed east. After fording many small 
rivers they finally arrived at the base of Mt. 
Sheridan. This was too high a mountain for them 
to cross, so on the following day they made a wide 
detour, rounding Red Mountain, Factory Hill, 
and so on into the Heart Lake Geyser Basin, a 
still wilder region with which Jim Badger ap¬ 
peared to be entirely familiar. 

Few people were met with in that remote 
region, though plenty of wild game was seen. 
That day they sighted three buffalo, some elk 
and deer, and several black bears. At night they 
heard the howl of the coyotes, which scented the 
presence of strangers in their domain. It was a 
lonely spot where they pitched their camp, but 
the Riders thoroughly enjoyed the wildness of 
it all. 


184 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Are there any mountain lion out here? ” 
questioned Hippy as they sat by the campfire that 
evening. 

“ Some,” answered the guide. “ Been mostly 
shot off ’cause they did so much damage to other 
game in the Park.” 

This started Stacy Brown, who spun a long 
yarn about the experiences of the Pony Rider 
Boys, of which outfit he had been a member, in 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, where they 
had roped instead of shot wild beasts. Jim 
Badger didn’t believe the stories but pretended 
that he did. Jim did not know the Pony Rider 
Boys, and he had yet to learn what the Over¬ 
land Riders could do in an emergency, though he 
was beginning to get a glimmer of the truth. 

A week was spent amid the rugged scenery of 
the Heart Lake Geyser Basin, then the Over¬ 
landers again broke camp and crossed the Divide, 
headed northward, intending to make the West 
Arm of Yellowstone Lake, a large body of water 
fed by icy streams that flowed down from the 
surrounding mountain range. It was their in¬ 
tention to connect with the Government road 
there and perhaps meet some of the tourists who 
were doing the Park in the old Concord coaches. 

The party found the going very rough, with 
much arduous climbing over intervening moun¬ 
tain ranges. It was not possible to make good 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


185 


time, nor were they particularly eager to do so, 
but it was noticed that, for some reason, Jim 
Badger appeared eager to make the West Arm as 
soon as possible. 

They reached the West Arm on the morning of 
the third day out from the Heart Lake Geyser 
Basin, and, to their delight, discovered a little 
lunch station known as the “ Thumb Lunch.” 
What interested them still more was the fact that 
they were allowed to fish in a little lake hard by 
the “ Thumb.” 

After getting a fishing outfit from the station, 
Badger took them to a little point of land that 
extended out into the lake. 

“ First, I’ll show you how to catch fish — trout 
— then you folks can go on and git your own 
mess,” he announced. 

Jim fished patiently, but did not even get a 
bite, greatly to the amusement of the Over- 
landers, who teased him until the guide’s temper 
began to rise. 

“ I think I can beat you fishing,” declared 
Hippy finally. “ When I was a boy I used to be 
something of a trout fisherman.” 

“ Here! Let me try it,” urged Stacy. “ I am 
a whale at catching trout. When I cast my hook 
they just have to bite.” 

“ Perhaps they bite to get rid of you,” sug¬ 
gested Emma. 


186 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Hippy, having taken the rod from Jim, made 
a cast. There followed a swish in the water and 
the pole bent almost to the breaking point. 

“ Got him! ” cried Hippy. 

“ Play him, play him! ” yelled Stacy. “ Don’t 
try to haul him in until you have tired him out. 
Oh, what a muffer you are! ” 

“ I reckon I know how to catch fish without 
advice from you,” retorted Lieutenant Wingate. 
“ Jim, where’s the landing net? ” 

“ Oh, pooh!” jeered Stacy. “It’s only ama¬ 
teurs that need a landing net.” 

“ Pull him in! ” cried Nora excitedly. 

“ There it comes,” exclaimed Emma, clapping 
her hands as a rainbow trout, its dazzling colors 
glistening in the bright sunlight, was thrown out 
wriggling on Hippy’s hook. 

“ Now why didn’t you do that? ” wondered 
Grace, nodding smilingly at Jim Badger. 

“ Because there wasn’t any fish there then. 
A school of ’em just happened to come along as 
the lieutenant threw in his line. Don’t take the 
fish off. I’ll show you somethin’ — show you the 
way we do things here.” 

Taking the pole from Hippy’s hand, the guide 
lowered the trout into a small boiling pool close at 
hand, while the Overlanders looked on curiously. 

“ He’s giving the fish a bath! ” chortled 
Chunky. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


187 


“ I Lope its colors are fast,” added Emma. 

A few moments later Jim hauled the fish out, 
cooked and ready to serve. Stacy got the fish 
and was eating it ere his companions really com¬ 
prehended what had been done. 

“ Somebody get me some salt,” urged Stacy 
thickly. “ This is too good to be true. Oh, 
what a snap! ” 

“You greedy boy! Won’t you give us a 
bite? ” rebuked Nora. 

“ Catch your own fish, and cook ’em on the 
hook. Put on fresh bait, Uncle Hip, and toss 
me another one. You folks go get yourselves 
poles and lines if you wish to fish in my puddle,” 
suggested Stacy. 

Acting upon Tom’s suggestion, the guide 
hurried off to fetch fishing tackle. 

“ Don’t forget the salt,” Stacy called after him. 
“ Fish without salt isn’t so appetizing, but on a 
pinch I can eat them ’most any old way.” 

“ Gluttons always can,” observed Emma under 
her breath. 

“ Here! Give me that pole. Ill catch my 
own food, if you please,” announced the fat boy, 
taking the rod from Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ Oh, very well. Here comes Jim with more 
tackle,” answered Hippy resignedly. 

By the time the guide reached them Stacy had 
made a cast and landed a trout. Without 


188 


GRACE HARLOWE 


getting up, he swung the fish over into the pool 
of boiling water, and grinned to himself as he 
observed that his companions were watching him 
frowningly. 

“ How long shall I cook it? ” he asked. 

“ To taste,” answered the guide, passing rods 
to the other members of the party. 

“ I am amazed that you should wait to cook 
your fish before eating,” suggested Emma. 

“ Yes. You are the greediest person I ever 
knew,” agreed Elfreda. “ Don’t you ordinarily 
clean your fish before eating? ” 

“ Not when I am as hungry as I am to-day.” 

“ Which is every day,” murmured Emma. 

“ I’ve got a big one! ” cried the fat boy. “ See 
him flop. They don’t like hot water, do they? ” 

“ Did you when you fell into the pool on your 
way to Electric Peak? ” questioned Grace 
laughingly. 

“ Don’t criticize, you folks. You all will be 
doing the same thing in a few moments,” said 
Hippy. 

Tom, who was now angling, caught one at the 
first cast, greatly to his delight, but he cleaned it 
with his hunting knife before dropping the fish 
into the boiling pool. 

“ This is the civilized way to do it, Stacy 
said Tom. 

“I prefer the hurry-up way. I reckon that 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


189 


lunch station won’t make much money out of 
this outfit to-day.” 

In the meantime the girls had begun to fish, 
and soon there were more trout than the party 
needed, but they took the keenest possible de¬ 
light in both the catching and the cooking, and 
ate until they could eat no more. 

“ Time to stop,” announced Tom Gray. “ It 
isn’t good sportsmanship to catch more fish than 
are needed for a meal.” 

Jim Badger, in the meantime, had gone over 
to the lunch station where he was making some 
inquiries about the coaches. A waiter there 
handed Jim a note that had been left for him by 
the driver of the last coach that had gone 
through. Badger read it and after tearing it up 
tossed the pieces out at the rear of the lunch 
tent. Lieutenant Wingate, wdio had gone over to 
the tent for some salt, saw the act and wondered. 

“ What? Are you eating still?” demanded 
Hippy upon his return with the guide. 

“ No. I’m eating fish,” mumbled the fat boy, 
to whom the question had been addressed. 

“ I hope it doesn’t make you sick. We can’t 
be bothered carrying a sick man along with us,” 
warned Lieutenant Wingate severely. 

“ That is what I have been trying to tell him,” 
spoke up Tom. “ Young man, don’t look for 
sympathy from me if you eat yourself sick.” 


190 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ I’m not looking for sympathy. I’m looking 
for fish. Fish is brain food, you know. Emma, 
why don’t you eat fish? ” 

“ For the very good reason that I don’t need 
it,” answered Miss Dean amid laughter. 

Stacy ran out of bait and asked for more, but 
his companions refused to let him have any. 
This, however, did not disturb the fisherman. 
He cut up a trout and used small pieces of it to 
bait his hook. 

“ There is no stopping him,” complained Nora. 

“ Not until he is so full that he can’t wiggle. 
I know how it is. I have been blessed with a 
fair to middling appetite all my life,” said Hippy. 

The fat boy still caught trout and ate on un¬ 
disturbed, but there soon came a time when 
Nature rebelled and Stacy rolled over on his back 
and lay gazing up at the white drifting clouds. 

“ He has finished. I thank the kind fates for 
that,” declared Elfreda in a relieved tone. 

“ Flelpless,” nodded Tom. 

“ Don’t be too positive about that. You folks 
do not yet know that boy’s capacity,” averred 
Emma. 

“ You think so, eh? You think I have eaten 
until I can hardly roll over? ” demanded Stacy. 
“ I reckon I’m not quite the glutton you try to 
make me out. I’m not. I’ve just been making 
a monkey out of you folks. Here’s more than 


I 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 191 

half the fish I caught and cooked, hidden under 
my coat. Now, smarties, what have you got 
to say? ” 

The Overland Riders looked at each other, 
then burst into peals of laughter. 

“ I now move that we go over to the Thumb 
Lunch Station and get some real food,” finished 
Chunky, getting up and winding the line neatly 
on the end of his fishing pole. 


192 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER XX 

WONDERS OF THE GRAND CANYON 

S TACY was the only member of the Over¬ 
land party who cared to eat when they 
reached the lunch station. Some of the 
girls took tea, but merely sipped it as they 
watched the fat boy eat a hearty meal. 

Camp was made that night near the station, 
and on the following morning they rode away 
over the Government road around the shore of 
the West Arm, after which they were to make a 
detour to reach the lake again at Bridge Bay. 
From there it was but a short journey to the 
Lake Hotel. 

“ Jim, when do the stages come through? ” 
called Lieutenant Wingate after the outfit had 
gotten well under way. 

“ We’ll meet one to-day,” replied the guide. 
“ Others will be along to-morrow, and the day 
after, too, I reckon, but we may not see any after 
we git past the Lake Hotel, ’cause we might 
strike off from the trail there. I haven’t decided 
’bout that yet.” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


193 


“ The rougher they come the better we like 
it,” chuckled Hippy. 

“ May we catch fish wdiere we’re going? ” asked 
Stacy eagerly. “ Cook and catch fish? ” 

“ You mean catch and cook, don’t you? ” re¬ 
minded Nora. 

“ Either way so long as we get the fish inside 
of us,” averred Stacy. “ I don’t care whether 
you cook them before you catch them, or catch 
them before you cook them, or whether you eat 
them before doing either. It’s the fish, not 
the — ” 

“ Do you know,” interjected Emma, “ I 
don’t believe there is anything in the brain-food 
theory? ” 

The Overlanders saw the point and laughed 
heartily, and Stacy regarded Emma narrowly. 
They did not stop at the Lake Hotel, but con¬ 
tinued on and camped near the base of Elephant 
Back Mountain. 

That evening Tom Gray gave them a talk 
on the Yellowstone Lake. He said the lake was 
about a mile and a half above the level of the 
sea, having an area of one hundred and thirty- 
nine square miles, the average depth being thirty 
feet, although in places it was said to be three 
hundred feet deep. 

“Yes, few lakes in the world surpass it in 
either area, altitude or beauty,” added Tom 

1 3 ■ Grace Harlowe in lYellowstone 


194 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Gray. “ Where else will you find ice-cold water 
on the one hand and boiling hot on the other, 
both easily reached by the stretching out of the 
hands at one and the same time? ” 

“ I know/' cried Stacy. “ Ask me something 
harder.” 

“ Well, where, Mr. Smarty? ” demanded Nora. 

Stacy confessed that he didn’t know, but that 
he was certain he could think of a place if he were 
to ponder long enough. 

“ Don’t try it,” warned Emma. “ For your 
information, Stacy Brown, outside the kitchen 
stove in winter time you will find the ice water, 
and the boiling water inside,” Emma informed 
him amid peals of laughter. 

At this juncture, Hippy rose to make a speech. 

“ We find ourselves amid scenes of almost 
overpowering beauty,” he began. 

“ Present company excepted,” muttered Stacy. 

“ Mountains tower thousands of feet above the 
surface of the lake, the latter being fed almost 
wholly by the springs and snows of the — of the 
Absaroka Range, the mountains forming a 
picturesque background to the shores of the lake, 
and — and — ” Flippy’s voice died away. 

“ Permit me to help you out, Hippy,” offered 
Emma sweetly. “ What you would say, had you 
not forgotten the piece you committed to mem¬ 
ory from the guide book, is, Nature has lavished 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


195 


her most extraordinary gifts on the region of the 
Yellowstone. Here are wild woodland, carpeted 
with varicolored flowers, crystal rivers, thunder¬ 
ing cataracts, gorgeous canyons, sparkling cas¬ 
cades, birds and animals; but of all its wonders 
none is so unusual, so startling, so weird, as the 
spouting geysers, especially the one that wears 
Captain Gray's pajamas and Stacy Brown’s 
shirt,” finished Emma in a gale of laughter from 
her companions. 

That night the water in their cooking utensils 
froze, and the Overlanders rose in the morning 
chilled to the marrow. A brisk run up and down, 
while Jim was building the fire, restored their 
circulation and their spirits. 

“ Our altitude above sea level is seven thou¬ 
sand, seven hundred and thirty-eight feet,” an¬ 
nounced Tom Gray. “ No wonder the water 
froze last night.” 

Their route, from that point on, lay along the 
west bank of the Yellowstone River on their way 
to the Grand Canyon of the Yellowstone. They 
started out early in the morning, and by sunrise 
were well on their way. On their right the guide 
pointed out the profile of the Sleeping Giant on 
a high mountain range, the features being coated 
with snow, 

“ It’s a wonder he doesn’t freeze his face,” com¬ 
mented Stacy. 


196 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Perhaps he would were it as soft as some 
persons,” suggested Emma demurely. 

“ Ouch! ” cried Stacy. “ That one went 
home.” 

“ Yes, the place where you ought to be,” added 
Nora. 

“ Home is all right when a fellow hasn’t any 
other place to go to. Of course home is the place 
for girls because all they can do is to chatter and 
try to look pretty,” retorted Chunky. 

The journey was made without incident, unless 
the perpetual cloud of dust could be called an 
incident. Dust seems a necessary part of Gov¬ 
ernment roads in the Yellowstone, and the Over¬ 
land Riders were covered with it ere they had 
proceeded far on their way. 

When within a mile or so of the Canyon Hotel, 
the murmur of rushing waters was borne to their 
ears. It was a welcome sound, and the guide 
informed them that it was the Yellowstone 
Rapids that they heard. The river, which up to 
that time had flowed along peacefully, was now 
forced close up to the Government road by the 
canyon walls. Mountainous boulders obstructed 
its passage, the waters plunging wildly between 
steep banks and over rocks, breaking into boister¬ 
ous waterfalls and hurling the spray high in the 
air. Stacy said it reminded him of a blizzard in 
Chillicothe. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


197 


Camp was made without taking a look at the 
canyon. After a day of hard riding, dust and 
discomfort, they had little desire for scenery, and 
further, it was decided to have their first look at 
this wonder of nature in the early morning. 

That first view was taken from Grand Point 
just as the sun was rising over the mountains, a 
view that drew exclamations of wonder from each 
pair of lips. The canyon, though not so vast as 
the Grand Canyon of the Colorado, was different. 
This one wound in and out for more than twenty 
miles, being about two thousand feet broad at 
the top and some two hundred feet at the bottom. 

“ Stupendous! ” breathed Elfreda Briggs as 
they strolled out on Lookout Point, a great pro¬ 
jection of rock overhanging the canyon. Here 
the Overlanders gazed in wonder from the 
painted walls, for which the canyon is famed, to 
the snowy waterfalls and river, the latter tracing 
its way like a slender ribbon of silver set amid all 
the colors of the rainbow. 

“It is awesome!” breathed Grace Harlowe. 
“ The little shower that has just passed, has 
varnished the rocks and brought out the colors 
with splendid effect.” 

The rush and roar of the lower falls, half a mile 
distant, could be plainly heard, and the mist that 
rose from them drifted slowly up into the air, 
where it was caught by the rays of the morning 


198 


GRACE HARLOWE 


sun, forming an exquisite rainbow that brought 
murmurs of wonder from the entranced Overland 
Riders. 

“ This is known as Moran Point/’ announced 
the guide after they had moved to another prom¬ 
ontory from which to view the splendid scenery. 

“ Oh, yes,” nodded Tom. “ It must have been 
here that Thomas Moran painted the sketches 
for his great Yellowstone picture now in the 
capitol at Washington. The statement is at¬ 
tributed to Moran that fully a million tints and 
shades of color are represented here.” 

“ I can well believe it,” nodded Grace. 

“ I think I should like to have a nice big 
pot of each one of those colors,” spoke up Stacy. 
“ At a dollar per I’d have some money, 
wouldn’t I? ” 

“ I do not think you would. Before you could 
sell it you would fall somewhere and spill it all,” 
retorted Emma. 

At the guide’s suggestion they followed the 
road along the edge of the canyon, finding many 
things to interest them, things that, while small 
in comparison with the canyon itself, were well 
worth their attention. Through the rustling 
pines they caught a glimpse of Castle Rock, 
rising nearly two thousand feet above the valley, 
and right among the pines that had grown up 
about it they came upon an enormous block of 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


199 


granite, weighing, Tom Gray estimated, fully a 
thousand tons. 

“ Is there any other granite like that in these 
parts? ” he asked. 

“ No,” answered Badger. “ It’s the only gran¬ 
ite I know of within a hundred miles of here. 
They call this block the ‘ Devil’s Watch Charm.’ ” 

“ I suppose the great question is, ‘ Where did 
it come from? ’ ” suggested Miss Briggs. 

“ Yes. It undoubtedly was transported here 
in the Glacial Age, and possibly was rolled and 
hurled hundreds of miles, grinding its way amid 
the ice of that remote age,” said Tom. 

“Br-r-r-r!” shivered Stacy. “ Had I lived 
then I should have had cold feet all the time.” 

“ Again, why the past tense? ” questioned 
Emma. 

Stacy grumbled, but had nothing to say, and 
by now the party was turning back towards 
camp. On their way they met a coach with a 
party of tourists from the Canyon Hotel in 
charge of the proprietor. The latter, so the 
Overlanders were informed, was about to make 
his daily trip to the bottom of the canyon, as he 
expressed it, “ for a little exercise and to take the 
stiffness out of my joints.” 

The canyon bottom lay a thousand feet below 
them at that point, Grand View, and the sides of 
the canyon were steep and rugged. 


200 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ What? You are going down there? ” ques¬ 
tioned Miss Briggs. 

“Yes. I do it nearly every day.” 

“ I should think you would break your neck,” 
laughed Grace. 

“ No trouble at all,” answered the proprietor. 

“ To break your neck? ” questioned Emma 
Dean. 

“ No. To make the trip. Would any of you 
people like to try it? ” 

“ I might,” admitted Emma. “ First, I shall 
wait to see how you do it, then perhaps I may 
think about it — ” 

“ There he goes! ” shouted a tourist. 

The hotel man had leaped out over the preci¬ 
pice, landing lightly on a narrow rock. Scarcely 
pausing to regain his balance, he sprang to an¬ 
other rock and went on bounding and leaping 
from point to point with the skill of a mountain 
goat. 

Within a little while the hotel man had reached 
the bottom of the canyon none the worse for his 
experience, the cheers of the spectators sound¬ 
ing faintly in his ears. 

“Try it, Emma. It will do you good. No? 
All girls are Traid cats. They don’t dare do any¬ 
thing that men do. Come on, folks! If the 
hotel boss can go down there, I can.” Stacy took 
a running start and leaped at the identical spot 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


201 


for which the other man had leaped. He nearly 
lost his balance there and probably would have 
fallen over had he not taken a quick spring to 
the next rock. 

All at once the attention of the spectators was 
attracted to another figure. It was Emma. 
With gathered up skirts she was running, and, 
as her companions saw, was preparing to follow 
where the hotel man and Stacy had led. 

Tom Gray ran to catch her, but too late. 
Emma launched herself into the air, and landed 
in safety on the first point, doing so better than 
Stacy had done. 

“ Oh, Hippy darling stop her! ” wailed Nora. 

Lieutenant Wingate, losing no time, followed 
Emma, and landed on the narrow rock just as 
Emma took flight from it, but Hippy’s feet went 
out from under him and he rolled a full fifty 
feet down the side of the canyon before he 
stopped. Emma was fairly dancing down over 
the projecting rocks, sure-footed, amazingly 
quick, cheered by the tourists from the hotel, 
greeted with groans from her companions, far in 
the lead of Hippy Wingate. 

“ There goes Stacy!” cried Grace. He had 
overshot the mark at one point, disappearing 
head first down a slope. Then they saw Emma 
make that point safely, but slip and fall. 

“ They’re done for,” groaned Tom Gray. 


202 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER XXI 

THE “ LION TAMER ” GETS A SCARE 

6 6 HERE they are! ” cried Jim Badger. 

Stacy and Emma appeared to rise 
-®- right up into the air, but Stacy 
quickly disappeared while Emma was seen to go 
still leaping on down the side of the canyon. 
The hotel man long since had reached the bottom 
and stood watching the descent of the fat boy 
and Emma, with Hippy Wingate floundering 
along some distance to the rear. 

Emma now was in the lead, wdiich she had 
gained because of Stacy’s frequent falls. 

“ The first one has reached the bottom,” cried 
a tourist. 

“ It’s Emma! It’s Emma! She did it like a 
bird,” exclaimed Grace excitedly. “ Who would 
have thought it of her? Wasn’t it just won¬ 
derful the way she sailed through the air? ” 

“ Oh, look at that boy, will you? He surely 
will be killed! ” cried a tourist spectator. 

Stacy was now traveling at high speed, touch¬ 
ing only the high places. Part of the time he 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


203 


was on his feet and at other times he appeared to 
be falling rather than jumping. 

“ He’ll be killed/ 5 groaned Nora. 

“ No. He is made of rubber/ 5 laughed a 
spectator. 

“ I reckon he will wish he was before he gets 
to the bottom/ 5 answered Jim Badger. “Wouldn't 
do it for a thousand. 55 

The Overlanders 5 faces reflected their anxiety. 
They saw Stacy take a last leap. He would have 
plunged head first into the Yellowstone River had 
not the hotel man and Emma stopped his flight. 
As it was, they both were bowled over under the 
fat boy’s charge. Stacy’s clothes were torn and 
there was blood on his face, but Emma, though 
her hair was down and her face very red, ap¬ 
peared to have suffered little from her experience. 

“ Girls are ’fraid cats/ are they? 55 teased 
Emma. “ Unable to do anything but ‘ chatter 
and look pretty, 5 eh? 55 

“ Well, I got here, didn’t I? 55 demanded the 
fat boy sourly. 

“ You surely did, 55 agreed the hotel man. 
“ But how you folks ever reached the bottom 
alive beats me. Young woman, I take off my 
hat to you. 55 

“ Emma, I take back all the unpleasant things 
I have ever said to you/ 5 said Hippy, eyeing her 
flushed face admiringly. 


204 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ If you wish to make amends, please help me 
to get back. How do we reach the top, please? ” 

“ Climb to it,” laughed the hotel man. 

“ The way we came down? ” 

“ Yes.” 

“ I wish I had an elevator,” said Stacy, eyeing 
the side of the canyon solemnly. 

“ Mr. Hotel Man, did I understand you to say 
that you do that jump every day? ” asked 
Lieutenant Wingate in a doubting tone. 

“ Every day during the season. It’s fine exer¬ 
cise— can’t be beat.” 

“ I agree with you as to the exercise. It’s 
worse than piloting a flying machine through a 
thunder storm. Well, if we must climb we might 
as well get going. Stacy, aren’t you afraid that 
your weak heart will give out before you reach 
the top?” chuckled Hippy. 

“ Yes, I am. I don’t believe I shall be able to 
reach it alive.” 

“ If you reached the bottom alive you surely 
can make the return journey without expiring,” 
returned the hotel man. “ I’ll assist you, Miss — 
Miss — ” 

“ Dean,” informed Emma. 

With the hotel man on one side of her and 
Lieutenant Wingate on the other, Emma began 
the return journey. It was a hard climb. The 
three Overlanders did not remember ever to have 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


205 


experienced a harder one. The hotel man, how¬ 
ever, having been over the ground so many 
times, knew how to pick out the easiest trail. 
He went up at a pace so fast that all three Over¬ 
landers were soon puffing, twisting here and 
there, with Stacy Brown trailing along to the 
rear, farther and farther behind. 

“ Don’t go so fast. I can’t keep up,” he 
wailed. 

“ Then why don’t you go up the way you came 
down? ” called back Lieutenant Wingate. 

“I — I would if I could, but I can’t.” 

It was some time later when the hotel man, 
Emma and Hippy climbed the last slope, pant¬ 
ing, faces flushed, eyes bright after the strenu¬ 
ous exercise. Nora grabbed and embraced 
Emma. 

“You poor dear! I never expected to see 
you alive again,” cried Nora. 

“ Why did you do such a foolish thing? ” 
begged Grace. 

“I — I guess I wanted to show Stacy Brown 
that girls are some good after all,” stammered 
Emma. “ Please let me sit down.” 

“ By the way, where is Stacy? ” demanded 
Tom, as the tourists were applauding and shaking 
hands with Emma. 

“He — he can’t climb very fast on account 
pf his weak heart,” suggested Emma demurely. 


206 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Don’t worry about Stacy,” chuckled Tom. 
“ He likes to be last because he thinks he will 
thereby attract more attention to himself.” 

Stacy came in an hour behind the others, and 
how the tourists, who had waited for the finish 
of the entertainment, did laugh. 

“ Oh, you have hurt yourself! ” cried a lady 
solicitously. 

“ I haven’t,” protested the fat boy indignantly. 
“ I do something like this most every day. It’s 
fine. You should try it. It will give you a fine 
appetite and make you beautiful. By the way, 
is luncheon ready? ” 

“ Stacy!” rebuked Nora. “ That was not a 
nice thing to say to the lady.” 

“ Isn’t he the funny child? ” chirped a young 
woman. 

Stacy bristled, but his companions laughed 
heartily. 

“ Perhaps you folks think I am some kind of 
joke, or a baby or — or — ” 

“ Or a brainless person,” suggested Emma, 
amid a shout of laughter. 

“ I’ll tell you folks who don’t know me, what 
I am. I am a lion tamer. The reason that I 
am not practicing my profession is that there are 
no lions at large. If you don’t believe it just 
trot out something bigger than a coon and I’ll 
show you that — ” 



“ Climb on the Coach 1 ” 
207 





















































IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


209 


A chorus of screams from the women tourists 
cut short what the fat boy was saying. Even 
the Overland girls wanted to cry out, for a she- 
bear with three cubs, the mother-bear with wide 
open jaws, had just topped the edge of the canyon 
and stood glaring at the company. 

Uttering a yell, Stacy Brown ran for the bushes 
on the opposite side of the road. 

“ Climb on the coach! ” cried Grace. “ Hurry! 
The bear may charge at any instant.” 

Hippy grasped the arms of two women and 
propelled them towards the old Concord coach, 
while Tom Gray gathered up a handful of stones 
from the roadside. The Overland girls had drawn 
near the coach, but had not yet got up, though 
every one of the women, tourists got aboard with¬ 
out loss of time. 

Tom threw a stone. It grazed the head of the 
bear, causing her to utter a savage growl. 
Lieutenant Wingate snatched up a rock and 
pitched it as he would a baseball. The rock hit 
Mrs. Bruin in the mouth, in fact it went right 
between her wide-open jaws. A stone thrown by 
Tom hit her on the nose, whereupon Mrs. Bruin 
suddenly dropped her forepaws to the ground and 
ambled towards the edge of the canyon. Stacy 
Brown, observing that the beast had been put to 
rout, emerged from his hiding place. With a 
whoop the fat boy charged the retreating bear. 


14 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 



210 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Come back, lion tamer! ” called Emma. 
“ The cubs might hurt you.” 

The fat boy continued his pursuit, and just as 
the bear was ambling over the edge, Stacy 
reached her and gave her a swift kick. The bear 
whirled like a flash, a giant paw flashed through 
the air, and, howling lustily, Stacy was sent 
rolling into the highway. Another stone, well 
placed by Lieutenant Wingate, started the bear 
and her cubs down the side of the canyon. 

“ I did it, I did it! ” yelled Stacy, springing to 
his feet, his shirt torn where the sharp claws of 
the bear had raked it. 

“ At least you made another exhibition of 
yourself,” rebuked Elfreda. 

“ Didn’t I tell you folks that I am a wild beast 
tamer? Well, I guess I am.” 

“ Minus the ‘ tamer,’ ” murmured Emma. 

“ For goodness sake, let’s get that boy away 
from here before he makes bigger fools of us,” 
begged Tom Gray. 

“ That would be impossible,” retorted Stacy 
who had overheard the remark. 

“ I agree with you,” laughed Hippy. “ I admit 
that we all have the willies, but we are having a 
great time just the same. There goes the coach.” 
The Overlanders waved a laughing good-bye. 

“ Come over to the dance at the hotel this 
evening,” called the proprietor. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


211 


“ Yes, do/’ urged the ladies on the coach. 

“ Be sure to bring the lion tamer with you,” 
added another. 

“ Thank you, but we can’t trust him in 
company. We have to watch him all the time,” 
answered Hippy Wingate. 

“ I call that a downright insult,” rebuked 
Stacy. “ I drive a savage beast away and save 
the lives of a dozen persons, then all the thanks 
I get is a theoretical kick. I deserve better 
treatment.” 

“ I agree with you,” nodded Emma. “ You 
do, Stacy, you surely do, and were I a man I 
might decide to dispense with the theoretical 
chastisement.” 

“ Alors! Let’s go! ” urged J. Elfreda Briggs. 


212 


GRACE HARLOWE 


CHAPTER XXII 

HIPPY SCENTS A MYSTERY 

T HE Overlanders voted to go to the 
dance at the hotel that night, but no 
one would assume responsibility for 
Stacy, so he said he would go along and take 
care of the Overlanders. 

‘Hippy remained in camp, saying that he might 
go over to the hotel later. 

“ I must write some business letters and mail 
them while I have the opportunity/’ he explained. 

About eight o’clock that evening the party set 
out for the hotel. Jim Badger had strolled away 
after attending to the horses and fetching w r ood 
for the campfire. For some little time Hippy sat 
gazing into the fire, then lighting a lantern and 
placing it on a box that Jim had brought to his 
tent he took up his correspondence. As he wrote, 
the music of the orchestra at the hotel was borne 
faintly to his ears. Hippy paused to listen, then 
resumed his writing. He had been thus engaged 
for some moments when a sharp whistle attracted 
his attention. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


213 


“ That's a signal! ” muttered Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. His first thought was that perhaps Stacy 
might be playing tricks on him, so Hippy cau¬ 
tiously crawled out by the rear of his tent. 

The whistle sounded again. Hippy answered 
it in kind, and started in the direction of the 
sound, which seemed farther away than at first, 
but that was because there was a slight rise of 
ground intervening between Lieutenant Wingate 
and the whistler, as he discovered at once. After 
answering the whistle signal for the second time, 
Hippy crept over the rise of ground and whistled 
again. 

“ What’s the matter? ” demanded a guarded 
voice just ahead of him. “ Be they watchin’ 
you? ” 

“ Yes,” answered Hippy, rising to his full 
height. “ How are things? ” 

“ They’re all fixed. They — ” 

The stranger did not complete what he had 
started to say. Instead, he suddenly bounded 
away, and Hippy heard him stumbling through 
the bushes; whereupon the Overlander! threw 
back his head and laughed heartily. 

“ I suppose I should have followed him. How 
he did hike when he saw that I wasn’t the person 
he thought I was! I’m glad to know that it’s 
all fixed, just the same,” chuckled the Overlander, 
turning back to camp, where he took up hig 


214 


GRACE HARLOWE 


interrupted writing and was not again disturbed 
until Jim Badger came in. 

“ Say, Jim, some fellow has been prowling 
about here to-night. He whistled to me from 
the bushes and when I went out to find what he 
wanted I nearly scared him out of his boots. 
You should have seen him run/’ laughed Hippy. 

“ You didn’t get a good look at the houn’, did 
you? ” demanded Badger indignantly. 

“ I saw him all right, but I couldn't tell what 
he looked like. Whom do you suppose he was 
whistling for? ” 

“ Might have been some of the help from the 
hotel whistlin’ for his dog. I don’t know. I 
wish I’d been around, that’s all. Reckon I’ll go 
out and take a scout about, and if I discover the 
critter, you bet I’ll give him a run.” 

“ There it is again! ” exclaimed Hippy some 
moments after the departure of the guide. “ If 
Jim doesn’t get him I’ll see what I can do.” 

Lieutenant Wingate ran out and headed in the 
same direction as before, but now making better 
time. He had not proceeded far ere he was 
checked by the sound of voices. 

The voices were pitched in too low a key for 
him to understand what was being said, so Hippy 
tried to get nearer without attracting the at¬ 
tention of the men, one of whom he was now 
positive must be Badger. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


215 


The Overlander stepped on a stick, which broke 
with a snap beneath his weight. 

“ Is that you, Jim? ” called Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate, realizing that secrecy no longer would 
serve his purpose. 

“Yes. Now, you feller, you git out of this. 
You’re lyin’ to me; you ain’t lost at all. Don’t 
let me catch you foolin’ ’bout this camp again 
unless you’re lookin’ for trouble,” ordered the 
guide, addressing the man with whom he had 
been talking. “ Now- git! ” 

Hippy bounded over to the guide. 

“ What’s all this about? ” he demanded sternly. 

“ I give it up, sir. That cayuse says he has 
lost his party and was tryin’ to see if our outfit 
wasn’t his’n. I reckon that’s all bunk, and that 
he was waitin’ a chance to steal somethin’,” 
averred the guide. 

Hippy said it did not seem reasonable to sup¬ 
pose that a man would first signal the person he 
intended to rob, but Jim thought this was done 
to make certain that the way was clear. 

“ Are you going back to the hotel, or going to 
turn in? ” questioned Hippy after a moment’s 
reflection. 

“ I’m goin’ to stay here unless there’s somethin’ 
you want me to do.” 

“ Yes, I should like to have you take my letters 
to the hotel and mail them.” The letters were 


216 


GRACE HARLOWE 


soon sealed and handed to the guide who strode 
away towards the hotel with them. After he had 
passed out of sight, Lieutenant Wingate decided 
to stroll over to the hotel and join his compan¬ 
ions, who, judging from the long time they were 
absent from camp, he concluded were having an 
enjoyable time. They were. 

The hotel ballroom was in a separate building 
near the hotel, to reach which Hippy walked 
around the end of the main building. He halted 
sharply at the sound of a voice that he thought 
was familiar, then with lips compressed he 
strode rapidly past two men who were in 
earnest conversation in the shadows. 

Hippy had made a discovery, but he was not 
to realize the full meaning of that discovery until 
later. The two men had shrunk back against 
the building, as he passed, pretending not to see 
them; then they quickly separated and were seen 
there no more that night. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


217 


CHAPTER XXIII 

MET WITH A VOLLEY OF BULLETS 

W HEN Lieutenant Wingate entered the 
hotel ballroom, thoughtful and won¬ 
dering, he found Colonel Scott and his 
party there. They had arrived by the evening 
stage and were laughing and chatting with the 
Overlanders. The colonel greeted Hippy warmly. 

“ Captain Gray tells me that you are leaving 
in the morning,” said the colonel. “ We are going 
out after luncheon.” 

“ Which way?” questioned Lieutenant Win¬ 
gate. 

“ Along the canyon.” 

“ Then no doubt you will pick up our camp 
somewhere on the way. Why not make it a 
point to do so and stop in for chow with us? 
I can’t promise you much in the way of food, 
but we have some good cooks, as well as eaters, 
in our outfit.” 

“ Mrs. Gray has been urging me to do that very 
thing. If we can find you, we shall at least make 
a call,” answered the colonel. 


218 


GRACE HARLOWE 


The departure of the Overland Riders was made 
shortly after that. Reaching camp, they im¬ 
mediately began packing for an early move on 
the following morning, having decided to pitch 
their next camp at Mount Washburn, some 
eighteen miles distant. 

Mount Washburn, they found upon arrival 
there just before noon next day, was located in a 
wild spot bordered on one side by the river, on 
the other by a dense growth of pines. The 
regular Government road did not lead through 
this rugged section, but an old wagon trail did, 
and though the Park coaches seldom sought out 
this trail it was found to be in very good con¬ 
dition. Camp was pitched at the base of the 
mountain, and the Overlanders enjoyed the wild¬ 
ness of their new site, though Badger warned 
them that they might possibly be bothered by 
animals. 

After luncheon all hands went out to spend 
the afternoon fishing. The result was a mess 
sufficient for a whole day’s rations. Jim Badger 
was starting the fire as they came in, when the 
rumble of an approaching coach was heard, and a 
few moments later a Concord coach swung into 
view, bearing Colonel Scott and his party. The 
Overland Riders greeted them with a cheer. 

“ Our driver told us that you had gone up this 
branch,” called Colonel Scott. a We decided to 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


219 


drop in for an informal call. You see we took an 
earlier start than we had contemplated doing/’ 
he added as the coach rolled to a stop opposite 
the camp. 

u Just in time, too/’ cried Grace. “We have 
some fine trout and will cook them for you at 
once.” 

“Fine! I don’t mind if you do,” answered 
the colonel, smiling broadly. “We are in no 
hurry, having decided to drive through by moon¬ 
light.” 

“ Please curb your appetite at dinner to-night,” 
whispered Nora to Stacy while Badger was clean¬ 
ing the fish. While the two parties were chat¬ 
ting, Grace and Elfreda salted and fried the trout, 
and Nora and Emma made coffee and laid the 
table on a spread-out blanket. 

As the odors of frying fish smote their nostrils, 
the guests grew visibly uneasy. Stacy Brown, 
however, observed the preparations with sinking 
heart, but, to his credit, he made no unpleasant 
remarks, and when the callers sat down on the 
ground to eat with the Overland Riders the fat 
boy contented himself with eating a single fish. 

It was late when finally the guests announced 
that they must resume their journey. Jim 
Badger, who had been talking with the coach 
driver, at this juncture made a discovery. 

“Look here! You’ve lost a nut off this hind 


220 


GRACE HARLOWE 


wheel,” he cried. “It’s a lucky thing for you 
folks that I discovered it, or you’d a-had a bad 
spill. You wait here while I hike back and see 
if I can find the lost nut.” 

Hippy said that he would go out and assist in 
the search, first, however, lighting a lantern, for 
dusk was already upon them. Following the 
guide’s departure, Lieutenant Wingate had not 
gone far ere he discovered the black, square¬ 
headed nut lying in plain sight in the road. Bad¬ 
ger was nowhere in sight. Hippy shouted for the 
guide, but received no reply, so he hastened back 
to camp with his find. 

“ I have it! ” he called as he got within hailing 
distance of the camp. 

“ Where is Mr. Badger? ” questioned Grace. 

“ Still hiking down the road, I presume,” 
answered Hippy, fitting the nut to the end of the 
axle. “There! It is fortunate for you people 
that we tempted you with our trout, isn’t it? ” 

“ It is, indeed,” agreed Colonel Scott. “We 
thank you very much, and are under deep obliga¬ 
tions to the Overland Riders. I hope we may 
meet again before we leave the Park. Do you 
return to Cinnabar on your way back home? ” 

Tom said yes, that they should return there 
hoping to have news of their missing ponies. 

With cordial hand-clasps and final good-byes, 
the colonel and his party set out as the moon was 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


221 


silvering the tops of the mountains. It would 
be more than an hour yet ere its rays lighted up 
the old wagon trail. 

“ Where can Badger be, Hippy? ” wondered 
Tom irritably. 

“ Oh, you needn’t look for him before morn¬ 
ing,” jeered Stacy. 

“ If he had any sense he would know that they 
did not lose the nut so far back, because the 
wheel would have come off before they got here,” 
averred Hippy. 

“ I haven’t had enough dinner,” suddenly 
wailed Stacy. 

“ That’s so, you haven’t,” agreed Hippy. 
“ Chunky, how did you ever stand it watching 
our company eat all the trout? ” 

“ I nearly died. It was awful.” 

“ You poor starved boy. You shall have some 
of the old standby, bacon and —” began Emma. 

“Hark! ” warned Miss Briggs, raising a hand 
for silence. 

“ I don’t hear anything, but I should like to 
hear something that sounds like food,” grumbled 
Stacy. 

“ There! ” exclaimed Elfreda. 

A scream — a shrill cry of distress — sounded 
faintly on the night air. The Overlanders gazed 
at each other questioningly. 

A volley of shots greeted their straining ears. 


222 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ There’s trouble afoot!” cried Lieutenant 
Wingate. 

“ Perhaps it is with the coach,” suggested 
Grace. 

“ Come on, fellows. We must find out what 
it is. You girls stay here,” directed Hippy, run¬ 
ning for his pony. Without waiting to saddle 
the animal, he leaped on the pony's back and 
went tearing down the road. Tom and Stacy 
were not very far behind him, and following them 
came the Overland girls, despite Hippy’s admo¬ 
nition to remain in camp, but Plippy was out of 
sight some moments before they got well started. 
A second volley of shots greeted his ears, which 
led him to urge his pony into a run. He was not 
certain of the trail, after leaving the wagon road, 
but trusted to his mount not to go into the 
Yellowstone River. 

“ It may be the Park guards,” muttered Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate, who, as he rounded a sharp bend 
in the Government highway, discovered some¬ 
thing in the road ahead of him. A scattering fire 
of revolver shots greeted his appearance. 

Two bullets went through his hat and one 
clipped his shoulder. Hippy threw himself flat 
on his horse, and drove ahead at full speed. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


223 


CHAPTER XXIV 

TRAILING THE BANDITS 

«yr S the coach/’ muttered Hippy. “Hi, 
I there! Cease firing. You’ll spoil my 
hat. You’ve put two holes through it 
already.” 

“Don’t shoot! It is Lieutenant Wingate,” 
cried a voice. 

“What happened?” demanded Hippy, gallop¬ 
ing up to the group of tourists huddled at the 
side of the road. “ What is the matter here? ” 

“ Matter? Matter? ” shouted Colonel Scott. 
“We have been held up and robbed, that’s all! 
The robbers have gone, thank goodness, but that 
doesn’t bring back our valuables.” 

Hippy sprang from his saddle. 

“Driver, have you a lantern?” he demanded. 
“ Please stay where you are, folks, as I wish to 
look about and see if I can discover anything,” he 
added as the coach-driver handed him a lantern. 

“ There they come again! ” cried a woman ex¬ 
citedly as the clatter of hoofbeats was heard 
down the road. 


224 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Don’t be alarmed. That is our party,” 
called Hippy, as, at this juncture, the Over¬ 
landers, with Tom Gray and Stacy Brown in 
the lead, swung into view. In the meantime 
Hippy had turned his attention to the coach, and 
he was amazed when he discovered the rear wheel 
of the vehicle lying at the side of the road. 

“ Driver, did that nut come off again? ” he de¬ 
manded, regarding the fellow narrowly. 

The coach-driver nodded. 

“ The axle broke when the wheel came off,” 
the driver informed him. 

Upon questioning the man further, Hippy 
learned that only one robber had been seen, and 
that he was masked. Others, he said, were 
secreted in the bushes keeping the tourists 
covered with rifles. The driver admitted that he 
had run away and hid during the robbery. 

“ Huh! You’re a brave man, aren’t you? ” re¬ 
plied Hippy sarcastically. 

The Overland party, having, in the meantime, 
reached the scene, were told that several hundred 
dollars in money and valuables had been taken 
from the tourists by the hold-up men. 

“ Let me at ’em! Let me at ’em! ” cried Stacy. 
“ Capturing bad men is my strong point.” 

“ Be quiet! This is serious,” rebuked Grace, 
placing a restraining hand on Stacy’s arm. 
“ Tom, you and Llippy try to pick up their trail. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


225 


There must be a trail if there were several men 
engaged in the robbery, as these people seem to 
think there were.” Grace beckoned to Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate and said something to him in a 
low tone of voice, to which he nodded. 

“ Do not disturb yourselves,” urged Colonel 
Scott. “ The thing is done and that is all there 
is to it.” 

“ That is not the Overland way,” reminded El- 
freda Briggs. 

Lieutenant Wingate, accompanied by Tom 
Gray, went over the ground with thoroughness, 
pausing here and there to examine a footprint, 
noting each broken bush or twig. Tom being a 
woodsman was more apt at this work than was 
Hippy, though the latter had the advantage of 
possessing certain information that Tom did not. 
Their quest led them from the highway in among 
the pines, the two working some little distance 
apart, Hippy with a lantern, and his companion 
with a pocket lamp. 

Lieutenant Wingate suddenly stooped over and 
picked up two objects, both of which he hurriedly 
tucked inside his blouse. Shortly after that he 
gave up his search and rejoined his companions, 
followed into camp by Tom. 

“ So far as I have been able to discover, only two 
persons were concerned in the robbery. I find 
the footprints of only two men,” announced Tom* 

j[ y 15 - Grace Harlowe in Yellowstone 


226 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ That is all,” agreed Lieutenant Wingate. 
“ I would suggest, Colonel, that your driver be 
sent back to the Springs for another coach.” 

“ In view of the fact that he cannot possibly 
get back before morning, the ladies must come 
and spend the night with us,” invited Grace. 
“ Those who can ride may use our ponies to get 
back to camp.” 

“ That is fine,” glowed the colonel. “ How¬ 
ever, I do not believe our women would feel at 
home on the backs of western broncos,” he added 
laughingly. 

The Overlanders said they, too, would walk 
and lead their ponies, Hippy announcing that 
he would follow on after he had further satis¬ 
fied his curiosity regarding certain phases of the 
hold-up. 

“ You discovered something, didn’t you?” 
whispered Grace. 

“Yes. Tom doesn’t know, but — ” Hippy 
whispered the rest of the sentence, to which Grace 
nodded understandingly. 

After the departure of the ladies, and after the 
driver of the coach had gone on with his team, 
riding one of the coach horses, Hippy walked 
briskly away with the lantern and spent some 
time searching for further clews. His quest led 
him on for some distance through the thicket, 
thence out into the highway at a point about a 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


227 


.quarter of a mile from the scene of the robbery. 
There he halted and stood pondering deeply. 

“ I reckon I know what I ought to do, but what 
I do not know is who and what that gang is. All 
right, you robbers! We shall see,” he muttered, 
striding away. Reaching his pony, Lieutenant 
Wingate rode slowly towards camp, which he 
approached quietly. Jim Badger, who had 
already returned to camp, was preparing a 
luncheon for the guests, with the assistance of 
Grace and Elfreda. After briefly observing the 
scene, Hippy rode leisurely into camp and was 
enthusiastically greeted by the guests. 

“ Colonel, did you direct your driver to notify 
the Park guards of the robbery? ” he asked. 

Colonel Scott said that he had done so. In 
the meantime the girls had arranged the tents to 
accommodate the guests, and Tom and the guide 
had built a lean-to which they filled with browse 
for the men to sleep on. 

“ It is indeed fortunate for us that you good 
people came to our rescue,” declared Colonel 
Scott with feeling. “ Lieutenant, you discovered 
something back there, didn’t you? ” he added in 
a lower tone. 

“ Frankly, I did, Colonel,” answered Hippy. 
“ I am not ready to speak of it, but I probably 
shall have something to say in the morning. I 
will admit, however, that I agree with Captain 


228 


GRACE HARLOWE 


Gray in believing that no more than two men 
were concerned in the hold-up.” 

“ How do you arrive at that conclusion? ” 

“ That would be telling,” chuckled Hippy. 

Hot coffee and luncheon served to quiet the 
nerves of the tourists, and a restful evening, after 
the guests’ exciting experiences, was spent about 
the campfire, following which, the ladies retired 
to their tents. Colonel Scott and his companions 
bunked in the lean-to, while Tom and Stacy 
rolled up in their blankets on the ground with 
feet close to the campfire. Hippy, it was ob¬ 
served, did not seem inclined to turn in. 

“ Jim, I wish you would please turn out early 
in the morning and get breakfast started for our 
company. They will have appetites in the morn¬ 
ing after a night in this bracing air.” 

“ I reckon they will,” grinned the guide. 
“Hope the guards git the critters that robbed 
the party,” he added, preparing to go to bed. 

Hippy nodded, but made no reply. The guide 
was restless and lay awake for some time, but 
finally dropped asleep after a drowsy look at 
Lieutenant Wingate who was still sitting gazing 
into the fire. Hippy remained in that position 
all through the night, never permitting his eyes 
to close for a second. Shortly after daybreak he 
heard the rumble of a coach, and listening atten¬ 
tively his ears caught the hoofbeats of horses. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


229 


“The guards are coming, 1 ” he muttered, but 
did not change his position. Jim Badger, how¬ 
ever, did. The guide sprang up, glanced down 
the road, then began hurried preparations for 
breakfast. 

One by one the Overlanders and their guests 
awakened as the stage with the tourists' driver 
rumbled up and stopped at the camp. The coach 
was followed by four mounted guards, who gal¬ 
loped in and dismounted, their faces stem, their 
attitude business-like. 

Colonel Scott was already giving the guards a 
brief account of the robbery. 

“ What do you know about this? ” demanded 
the sergeant in command, turning sharply to 
Lieutenant Wingate. 

“ That will do, Sergeant. This gentleman 
knows no more about the affair than I have told 
you. The idea is preposterous! ” exclaimed 
Colonel Scott. 

“ The sergeant is right in asking, sir. I do 
know something more about the robbery — some¬ 
thing that these guards will be glad to hear," re¬ 
plied Hippy evenly. 

A moment of strained silence followed, every 
eye fixed inquiringly on Lieutenant Wingate, 
then Hippy deliberately drew a hat from under 
his blouse, held it up and surveyed it apprais¬ 
ingly. 


230 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ This hat I found at a place where the robber 
evidently halted to stow away his plunder. I 
also found this watch at the same spot/’ an¬ 
nounced Hippy in an ordinary conversational 
tone. “ Does anyone recognize the watch? ” 

“ It’s mine! ” cried Colonel Scott excitedly. 

Amazement was reflected on the countenance 
of the Park guards. 

“ If any person attempts to leave this camp 
I’ll shoot! ” warned Lieutenant Wingate, a 
sharper note entering his voice. 

“ You know whose hat that is? ” demanded 
the sergeant, taking a step towards Hippy. 

“ I do.” 

“Put down that gun and give me the hat! ” 
commanded the guard sternly, reaching for the 
revolver that the Overlander had drawn from its 
holster. 

“ Don’t get excited, Ruddy. Don’t give me 
orders, either. The hat belongs to that man. He 
is the fellow who held up the coach last night! ” 
cried Hippy, pointing to the guide. 

“ Badger! ” gasped the Overland Riders. 

“ It’s a lie! ” screamed the guide, struggling 
and striking out as two guards pounced on him. 

“Hippy! The coach-driver!” whispered El- 
freda excitedly. “ It’s — it’s Taggart — Taggart, 
the fellow who accused Stacy of blowing up the 
geyser! ” 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


231 


“Yes. Taggart without his whiskers. I recog¬ 
nized him last night,” answered Hippy hurriedly. 

“Watch him! ” cried Grace sharply. 

A few seconds later the spectators were treated 
to a fresh sensation. Hippy, who had been nar¬ 
rowly watching the driver, suddenly realized that 
the fellow, who had been fussing with his harness, 
was trying to get away. Lieutenant Wingate ran 
around the rear of the coach and caught him as 
Taggart was sneaking into the bushes on the far 
side of the coach. 

Taggart whirled in a flash and delivered a swift 
blow that caught Hippy in the eye and jolted his 
head backwards. Hippy retaliated with a short- 
arm jab to the neck of his opponent, then the 
battle was on in earnest. Taggart, now that his 
beard was shaven, looked a much younger man 
than when the Overlanders had first seen him in 
the office of the acting commanding officer at the 
fort, and he proved himself a foe to be reckoned 
with, but Hippy was quicker and possessed a 
higher degree of skill. 

Once Hippy stumbled and fell. Taggart 
pounced upon him savagely. 

“ Git back, ye houn’! ” warned a trooper. 

Hippy was on his feet in an instant and in the 
next second a crushing blow on the jaw toppled 
Bill Taggart over in a heap, knocked out. 

“ I reckon that’ll be about all,” grinned Hippy, 


232 


GRACE HARLOWE 


gingerly touching his blackened eye. “You can 
have him now, Buddies. I have every reason 
for believing that he and Badger were in this 
thing together.” 

After he had been revived by Elfreda and 
Grace, Taggart admitted the accusation that 
Lieutenant Wingate had made against him, and 
told where he had secreted his share of the 
plunder taken from Colonel Scott’s companions. 
Under Miss Briggs’ questioning he also admitted 
that Jim Badger had told him about Stacy 
Brown’s blowing up the geyser, and that the two 
men had later shared in the reward. 

Faced with these disclosures, Jim Badger broke 
down and told the whole miserable story of how 
he had been robbing tourists for more than a 
year, and that he had joined the Overland outfit 
for the sole purpose of covering his thieving 
operations. It was the coach-driver, his compan¬ 
ion in crime, that Hippy had caught prowling 
about the camp a few nights previously, and it 
was the driver and Badger that he had seen con¬ 
versing in the shadows at the rear of the hotel. 

The plan for wrecking the coach had been ar¬ 
ranged between the two men, and it was Badger 
who first removed the nut from the coach wheel, 
and under the guise of going out to look for it 
had dropped it in the road where Hippy found 
it later. 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


233 


Not only this, but Taggart, during the halt at 
the Overland camp, had filed the thread of the 
hub so that the first undue side pressure would 
cause the wheel to fly off. In taking a sharp bend 
in the road at the designated point he had swung 
the stage to the right and wrecked it. Jim 
Badger, who had slipped along through the pines, 
was waiting for the coach at the bend. As he 
darted into the road, masked, revolver in hand, 
shooting into the air, he called directions in a 
disguised voice to imaginary men who were sup¬ 
posed to be hiding in the bushes and covering the 
passengers with their rifles. The very simplicity 
of the plan had crowned it with success. 

Under pressure, Badger admitted that he, 
aided by Taggart, had committed both hotel 
robberies, as well as other similar thieving in the 
Park. 

Grace had suspected him, in fact, almost from 
the first, her intuition having told her that some¬ 
thing was wrong with their guide. After the 
Overlanders were robbed in their camp, she was 
more positive than ever that she was right. This 
also was a crime that Badger confessed to having 
committed. 

“ He's the fellow who stole my fifty cents! ” 
shouted Stacy. “ Let me at him! ” 

“ Be quiet, little boy,” admonished Emma. “ If 
you are good I will give you fifty cents.” 


234 


GRACE HARLOWE 


“ Our railroad detectives/’ said Colonel Scott, 
“ long ago proved to me that the detection of crime 
is, in the end, almost inevitable. Did criminals 
possess the power to look far enough ahead, crime 
would vanish from the face of the earth.” 

“ Stop yer preachin’! ” growled Badger, shak¬ 
ing his manacled fists at the colonel. 

“ Jim, I reckon you would be a heap sight 
better off had you cultivated a taste for preach¬ 
ing early in life,” retorted Lieutenant Wingate. 

It was decided to break camp and accompany 
the guards to the fort, as the Overland Riders’ 
evidence would be required. Grace volunteered 
to drive the coach in for the tourists, which she 
did, landing them safely at their destination in 
time for luncheon. On the Overland testimony, 
Taggart and Badger got long terms in prison, 
and after giving their evidence at the fort, the 
Overlanders resumed their explorations of the 
Park, traveling without a guide until September. 

One afternoon the Overland Riders, bronzed 
and dusty, galloped into Cinnabar and halted at 
the post office. There was a rush for mail and 
the girls were chattering excitedly as they 
perused their letters. A growl from Hippy Win¬ 
gate checked the chatter. 

“ Listen to this, you Overlanders! ” cried Lieu¬ 
tenant Wingate. “ The letter is from the super¬ 
intendent of the railroad. He says: 


IN YELLOWSTONE PARK 


235 


“‘ Investigation by our detectives and under¬ 
officials develops that the car containing your 
ponies was broken into and robbed at Summit 
Junction while awaiting transfer to another 
train. Despite the endeavors of our officers, no 
trace has been found of the animals. We have 
therefore referred the case to our claim depart¬ 
ment, to which you will please make representa¬ 
tion as to the value of the property stolen, so 
that settlement may be made.’ ” 

Groans greeted the reading of this letter. 

“ That settles it, of course,” resumed Hippy. 
“ We will ship these animals home, as we prob¬ 
ably never shall hear from the missing ones.” 
The Overlanders never did. Two days later they 
entrained for home, already looking forward 
eagerly to their next season’s outing. 

On the way East, Emma Dean announced that 
she had decided to withdraw her guardianship 
from Stacy Brown. 

“ I found a gray hair in my head last night, 
and I am satisfied that my worry over this irre¬ 
sponsible ward of mine is responsible for it. 
What the child needs is a male guardian — some 
fellow with a real live punch,” finished Emma, 
amid the laughter of her companions. 

“ Leave that to me,” advised Hippy. “ If the 
young man goes out with us next season, I 
promise to take him in hand.” 


236 


GRACE HARLOWE 


The further adventures of the Overland Riders 
will be found in a following volume entitled: 
“ Grace Harlowe’s Overland Riders in the 
Black Hills,” a thrilling narrative of adven¬ 
tures among the Indians. The fight in the 
“ Omaha House,” the Indian pow-wow and the 
feast of the fatted dog, the mystery of the Man 
in Black, and the savage night raids on the Over¬ 
land camp, make a story of adventure second to 
none that Grace Harlowe and her companions 
have ever experienced. 


THE END 



























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ing With the U. S. Navy in Mexico. 

2. DAVE DARRIN ON MEDITERRANEAN 
SERVICE; or, With Dan Dalzell on Euro¬ 
pean Duty. 

3. DAVE DARRIN’S SOUTH AMERICAN 
CRUISE; or, Two Innocent Young Naval 
Tools of an Infamous Conspiracy. 

4. DAVE DARRIN ON THE ASIATIC STATION; or, Winning Lieu¬ 

tenants’ Commissions on the Admiral’s Flagship. 

5. DAVE DARRIN AND THE GERMAN SUBMARINES; or, Making 

a Clean-up of the Hun Sea Monsters. 

€. DAVE DARRIN AFTER THE MINE LAYERS; or, Hitting the 
Enemy a Hard Naval Blow. 

THE CONQUEST OF THE UNITED 
STATES SERIES 

By H. IRVING HANCOCK 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

If the United States had not entered the war many things 
might have happened to America. No liberty-loving Ameri¬ 
can boy can afford to miss reading these books. 

1. THE INVASION OF THE UNITED STATES; or, Uncle Sam’s Boys 

at the Capture of Boston. 

2. IN THE BATTLE FOR NEW YORK; or, Uncle Sam’s Boys in the 

Desperate Struggle for the Metropolis. 

3. AT THE DEFENSE OF PITTSBURGH; or, The Struggle to Save 

America’s “Fighting Steel” Supply. 

4. MAKING THE LAST STAND FOR OLD GLORY; or, Uncle Sam’s 

Boys in the Last Frantic Drive. 





DAVE DARRIN 
AT 

VERA CRUZ 

H-IRVWC-HANCOCK 

















THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB SERIES 

By H. IRVING HANCOCK 


PRICE, $1.00 EACH 


THE - MOTOR • BOAT 
CLUB OF THE 
KENI 


Bright and sparkling as the waters 
over which the Motor Boat Boys sail. 

Once cast off for a cruise with these 
hardy young fresh-water navigators 
the reader will not ask to be ‘‘put 
ashore” until the home port has finally 
been made. Manliness and pluck are 
reflected on every page; the plots are 
ingenious, the action swift, and the in¬ 
terest always tense. There is neither 
a yawn in a paragraph nor a dull mo¬ 
ment in a chapter in this stirring 
series. No boy or girl will willingly 
lay down a volume of it until “the end.” The stories also em¬ 
body much useful information about the operation and hand¬ 
ling of small power boats. 



H-IRVlNd 1 

HANCOCK 


1. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OF THE KENNEBEC; or, The Secret 

of Smugglers’ Island. 

2. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT NANTUCKET; or, The Mystery of 

the Dunstan Heir. 

3. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB OFF LONG ISLAND; or, A Daring 

Marine Game at Racing Speed. 

4. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AND THE WIRELESS; or, The Dot, 

Dash and Dare Cruise. 

5. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB IN FLORIDA; or, Laying the Ghost 

of Alligator Swamp. 

6. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB AT THE GOLDEN GATE; or, A 

Thrilling Capture in the Great Fog. 

?. THE MOTOR BOAT CLUB ON THE GREAT LAKES; or, The 
Flying Dutchman of the Big Fresh Water. 











THE SUBMARINE BOYS SERIES 


By VICTOR G. DURHAM 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 


A voyage in an undersea boat! What 
boy has not done so time and again in 
his youthful dreams? The Submarine 
Boys did it in reality, diving into the 
dark depths of the sea, then, like Father 
Neptune, rising dripping from the deep 
to sunlight and safety. Yet it was not 
all easy sailing for the Submarine Boys, 
for these hardy young “undersea pi¬ 
rates” experienced a full measure of ex¬ 
citement and had their share of thrills, 
as all who sail under the surface of the 
seas are certain to do. The author 
knows undersea boats, and the reader who voyages with him 
may look forward to an instructive as well as lively cruise. 

1. THE SUBMARINE BOYS ON DUTY; or, Life on a Diving Torpedo 

Boat. 

2. THE SUBMARINE BOYS’ TRIAL TRIP; or, “Making Good” as 

Young Experts. 

3. THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE MIDDIES; or, The Prize De¬ 

tail at Annapolis. 

4. THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SPIES; or, Dodging the 

Sharks of the Deep. 

5. THE SUBMARINE BOYS’ LIGHTNING CRUISE; or. The Young 

Kings of the Deep. 

6. THE SUBMARINE BOYS FOR THE FLAG; or, Deeding Their Lives 

to Uncle Sam. 

7. THE SUBMARINE BOYS AND THE SMUGGLERS; or, Breaking 

Up the New Jersey Customs Frauds. 

•8. THE SUBMARINE BOYS’ SECRET MISSION; or, Beating an Am¬ 
bassador’s Game. 








TiE 

SUBMAR!NE*BOYS 
FOR-THE'FLAG 




















THE PONY RIDER BOYS SERIES 

By FRANK GEE PATCHIN 


PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

This unusual and popular series tells 
vividly the story of four adventure-lov¬ 
ing lads, who, with their guardian, spent 
their summer vacations in the saddle in 
search of recreation and healthful 
adventure, though for a time it seemed to 
them that nature and man had conspired 
to defeat them at every turn. Long 
journeys over mountain, through the 
fastness of primitive forest and across 
burning desert, lead them into the wild 
places of their native land as well as 
into many strange and exciting experi¬ 
ences. There is not a dull moment in the series for the Pony 
Rider Boys nor for those who read of their summer wander¬ 
ings. 

1. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ROCKIES; or, The Secret of 

the Lost Claim. 

2. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN TEXAS; or, The Veiled Riddle of the 

Plains. 

3. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN MONTANA; or, The Mystery of the 

Old Custer Trail. 

4. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE OZARKS; or, The Secret of 

Ruby Mountain. 

5. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE ALKALI; or, Finding a Key to 

the Desert Maze. 

6. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN NEW MEXICO; or, The End of the 

Silver Trail. 

7. THE PONY RIDER BOYS IN THE GRAND CANYON; or, The 

Mystery of Bright Angel Gulch. 

8. THE PONY RIDER BOYS WITH THE TEXAS RANGERS; or, On 

the Trail of the Border Bandits. 
















THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS 

SERIES 

By FRANK GEE PATCHIN 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

“Farming? Pooh!” This, today, is the atti¬ 
tude of the average American young man. Yet 
the most solid and enduring wealth comes out of 
the soil. The old farming conditions are passing. 
The ranch or great farm of today is really a 
gigantic business undertaking, employing multi¬ 
tudes, and those of the employees who rise and 
lead these multitudes find the best of incomes 
awaiting them. Ranch and farm today distinctly 
bid for brains, not mere muscle. Do you know, 
for instance, that from $10,000 to $12,000 a year 
is very common pay for the foremen of the great 
wheat ranches in Kansas? Have you any idea of 
the excitements, the glories of this life on great 
ranches in the West? Any bright boy will “de¬ 
vour” the books of this series, once he has made 
a start with the first volume. 

1. THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE RANCH; or, 

The Boy Shepherds of the Great Divide. 

2. THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS’ GREATEST ROUND¬ 

UP; or, Pitting Their Wits Against a Packers’ Combine. 

3. THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS ON THE PLAINS; or, 

Following the Steam Plov/s Across the Prairie. 

4. THE RANGE AND GRANGE HUSTLERS AT CHICAGO; or, The 

Conspiracy of the Wheat Pit. 

THE BOYS OF STEEL SERIES 

By JAMES R. MEARS 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

In this splendid series the great American steel industry is exploited by 
a master pen. The author put in much time studying conditions at the 
iron mines, on the transportation routes and at the big steel mills. He has 
made of these volumes a series of romances with scenes laid in the iron and 
steel world. Each book presents a vivid picture of some phase of this 
great industry. The information given is exact and truthful; above all, 
each story is full of adventure and fascination. The steel industry today 
offers a splendid field for the efforts of really bright American youths. 
There are great possibilities of careers in this line of work; the brightest 
who enter may in time win some of the highest incomes paid in this coun¬ 
try. And the work is full of fascination throughout. 

1. THE IRON BOYS IN THE MINES; or, Starting at the Bottom of 

the Shaft. 

2. THE IRON BOYS AS FOREMEN; or, Heading the Diamond Drill 

Shift. 

3. THE IRON BOYS ON THE ORE BOATS; or, Roughing It on the 

Grcst Lskc^ 

4. THE IRON BOYS IN THE STEEL MILLS; or, Beginning Anew in 

the Cinder Pits. 


RANGE 
AND GRANGE 
HUSTLERS ON 
THE RANCH 

F8AKK G-PATCHIN 














THE CIRCUS BOYS SERIES 

By EDGAR B. P. DARLINGTON 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

No call to the heart of the youth of 
America finds a readier response than the 
call of the billowing canvas, the big red 
wagons, the crash of the circus band and 
the trill of the ringmaster’s whistle. It 
is a call that captures the imagination of 
old and young alike, and so do the books 
of this series capture and enthrall the 
reader, for they were written by one who, 
besides wielding a master pen, has fol¬ 
lowed the sawdust trail from coast to 
coast, who knows the circus people and 
the sturdy manliness of those who do 
and dare for the entertainment of mil¬ 
lions of circus-goers when the grass is 
green. Mr. Darlington paints a true picture of the circus life. 

1. THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE FLYING RINGS; or, Making the 

Start in the Sawdust Life. 

2. THE CIRCUS BOYS ACROSS THE CONTINENT; or, Winning 

New Laurels on the Tanbark. 

3. THE CIRCUS BOYS IN DIXIE LAND; or, Winning the Plaudits of 

the Sunny South. 

4. THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE MISSISSIPPI; or, Afloat with the 

Big Show on the Big River. 

5. THE CIRCUS BOYS ON THE PLAINS; or, The Young Advance 

Agents Ahead of the Show. 

BOOKS FOR GIRLS 

THE MADGE MORTON SERIES 

By AMY D. V. CHALMERS 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

The heroines of these stories are four girls, who with en¬ 
thusiasm for outdoor life, transformed a dilapidated canal 
boat into a pretty floating summer home. They christened 
the craft “The Merry Maid” and launched it on the shore of 
Chesapeake Bay. The stories are full of fun and adventure, 
with not a dull moment anywhere. 

1. MADGE MORTON—CAPTAIN OF THE MERRY MAID. 

2. MADGE MORTON’S SECRET. 

3. MADGE MORTON’S TRUST. 

4. MADGE MORTON’S VICTORY. 
















THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS SERIES 

By JANET ALDRIDGE 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 


Four clever girls go hiking around 
the country and meet with many thril¬ 
ling and provoking adventures. These 
stories pulsate with the atmosphere of 
outdoor life. 

1. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS UNDER 
CANVAS; or. Fun and Frolic in the Sum¬ 
mer Camp. 

2. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ACROSS 
COUNTRY; or, The Young Pathfinders 
on a Summer Hike. 

3. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS AFLOAT; 
or, The Stormy Cruise of the Red Rover. 

4. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS IN THE HILLS; or, The Missing 

Pilot of the White Mountains. 

5. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS BY THE SEA; or, The Loss of the 

Lonesome Bar. 

6. THE MEADOW-BROOK GIRLS ON THE TENNIS COURTS; or. 

Winning Out in the Big Tournament. 

THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS SERIES 

By LAURA DENT CRANE 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

Girls as well as boys love wholesome adventure, a wealth 
of which is found in many forms and in many scenes in the 
volumes of this series. 

1. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT NEWPORT; or, Watching the Sum¬ 

mer Parade. 

2. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS IN THE BERKSHIRES; or, The 

Ghost of Lost Man’s Trail. 

3. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS ALONG THE HUDSON; or, Fighting 

Fire in Sleepy Hollow. 

4. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT CHICAGO; or, Winning Out 

Against Heavy Odds. 

5. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT PALM BEACH; or, Proving Their 

Mettle Under Southern Skies. 

6. THE AUTOMOBILE GIRLS AT WASHINGTON; or, Checkmating 

the Plots of Foreign Spies. 



















THE HIGH SCHOOL GIRLS SERIES 

By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

The scenes, episodes, and adventures 
through which Grace Harlowe and her 
intimate chums pass in the course of 
these stories are pictured with a vivacity 
that at once takes the young feminine 
captive. 

1. GRACE HARLOWE’S PLEBE YEAR AT 

HIGH SCHOOL; or, The Merry Doings of 
the Oakdale Freshmen Girls. 

2. GRACE HARLOWE’S SOPHOMORE YEAR 

AT HIGH SCHOOL; or, The Record of the 
Girl Chums in Work and Athletics. 

3. GRACE HARLOWE’S JUNIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; or, 

Fast Friends in the Sororities. 

4. GRACE HARLOWE’S SENIOR YEAR AT HIGH SCHOOL; or, 

The Parting of the Ways. 

THE COLLEGE GIRLS SERIES 

By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

Every school and college girl will recognize that the ac¬ 
count of Grace Harlowe’s experiences at Overton College is 
true to life. 

1. GRACE HARLOWE’S FIRST YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 

2. GRACE HARLOWE’S SECOND YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 

3. GRACE HARLOWE’S THIRD YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 

4. GRACE HARLOWE’S FOURTH YEAR AT OVERTON COLLEGE. 

5. GRACE HARLOWE’S RETURN TO OVERTON CAMPUS. 

6 . GRACE HARLOWE’S PROBLEM. 

7. GRACE HARLOWE’S GOLDEN SUMMER. 


3 . 


Grace Harlowe's 
Plebe Year 
at High School 





Graham Rower A.M. 
















THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERSEAS 

SERIES 

By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

Grace Harlowe went with the Over- 
ton College Red Cross Unit to France, 
there to serve her country by aiding the 
American fighting forces. These books 
will interest ever}'- girl reader because 
they describe the great war from a girl’s 
point of view. 

1. GRACE HARLOWE OVERSEAS. 

2. GRACE HARLOWE WITH THE RED 
CROSS IN FRANCE. 

3. GRACE HARLOWE WITH THE MA¬ 
RINES AT CHATEAU THIERRY. 

4. GRACE HARLOWE WITH THE U. S. 
TROOPS IN THE ARGONNE. 

5. GRACE HARLOWE WITH THE YANKEE 
SHOCK BOYS AT ST. QUENTIN. 

6. GRACE HARLOWE WITH THE AMERICAN ARMY ON THE 
RHINE. 

THE GRACE HARLOWE OVERLAND 

RIDERS SERIES 

By JESSIE GRAHAM FLOWER, A. M. 

PRICE, $1.00 EACH 

Grace Harlowe and her friends of the Overton College Unit 
seek adventure on the mountain trails and in the wilder sec¬ 
tions of their homeland, after their return from service in 
France. These are stories of real girls for real girls. 

1. GRACE HARLOWE’S OVERLAND RIDERS ON THE OLD 

APACHE TRAIL. 

2. GRACE HARLOWE’S OVERLAND RIDERS ON THE GREAT 

AMERICAN DESERT. 

3. GRACE HARLOWE’S OVERLAND RIDERS AMONG THE KEN¬ 

TUCKY MOUNTAINEERS. 

4. GRACE HARLOWE’S OVERLAND RIDERS IN THE GREAT 

NORTH WOODS. 



ft 

i 


l 


Grace Harlowe 
Overseas 



H*rlove 
Ovr«-»r»« S»ri«4 


Jessie Graham ITowei; A.M. 





















WEE BOOKS FOR WEE FOLKS 

^ For little hands to fondle and for mother to read aloud. 
Every ounce of them will give a ton of joy. 

WEE BOOKS FOR WEE FOLKS SERIES 

1. MOTHER GOOSE NURSERY TALES. 

2. MOTHER GOOSE NURSERY RHYMES. 

3. A CHILD’S GARDEN OF VERSES. Robert 

Louis Stevenson. 

4. THE FOOLISH FOX. 

5. THREE LITTLE PIGS. 

6. THE ROBBER KITTEN. 

7. LITTLE BLACK SAMBO. 

8. THE LITTLE SMALL RED HEN. 

9. THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS. 

10. THE LITTLE WISE CHICKEN THAT 

KNEW IT ALL. 

11. PIFFLE’S ABC BOOK OF FUNNY ANIMALS. 

12. THE FOUR LITTLE PIGS THAT DIDN’T HAVE ANY MOTHER. 

13. THE LITTLE PUPPY THAT WANTED TO KNOW TOO MUCH. 

14. THE COCK, THE MOUSE AND THE LITTLE RED HEN. 

15. GRUNTY GRUNTS AND SMILEY SMILE—INDOORS. 

16. GRUNTY GRUNTS AND SMILEY SMILE—OUTDOORS. 

WEE FOLKS BIBLE STORIES SERIES 

1. WEE FOLKS STORIES FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT. In 

Words of One Syllable. 

2. WEE FOLKS STORIES FROM THE NEW TESTAMENT. In 

Words of One Syllable. 

3. WEE FOLKS LIFE OF CHRIST. 

4. WEE FOLKS BIBLE ABC BOOK. 

5. LITTLE PRAYERS FOR LITTLE LIPS. 

THE WISH FAIRY SERIES 

1. THE LONG AGO YEARS STORIES. 

2. THE WISH FAIRY OF THE SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 

FOREST. 

3. THE WISH FAIRY AND DEWY DEAR. 

4. THE MUD WUMPS OF THE SUNSHINE AND SHADOW 

FOREST. 

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED IN COLORS. 



PRICE, 50c. EACH 
















WEE FOLKS PETER RABBIT SERIES 


1. THE TALE OF PETER RABBIT. 

2. HOW PETER RABBIT WENT TO SEA. 

3. PETER RABBIT AT THE FARM. 

4. PETER RABBIT’S CHRISTMAS. 

5. PETER RABBIT’S EASTER. 

6. WHEN PETER RABBIT WENT TO 
SCHOOL. 

7. PETER RABBIT’S BIRTHDAY. 

8. PETER RABBIT GOES A-VISITING. 

9. PETER RABBIT AND JACK-THE-JUMPER. 

10. PETER RABBIT, JACK-THE-JUMPER, AND THE LITTLE BOY. 

WEE FOLKS CINDERELLA SERIES 

Rhymed and Retold by Kenneth Graham Duffield 

1. THE WONDERFUL STORY OF CINDERELLA. 

% 

2. THE STORY OF LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD. 

3. THE OLDTIME STORY OF THE THREE BEARS. 

4. THE OLD, OLD STORY OF POOR COCK ROBIN. 

5. CHICKEN LITTLE. 

6. PUSS IN BOOTS. 

7. THREE LITTLE KITTENS THAT LOST THEIR MITTENS. 

8. JACK THE GIANT KILLER. 

LITTLE BUNNIE BUNNIEKIN SERIES 

1. LITTLE BUNNIE BUNNIEKIN. 

2. LITTLE LAMBIE LAMBKIN. 

3. LITTLE MOUSIE MOUSIEKIN. 

4. LITTLE DEARIE DEER. 

5. LITTLE SQUIRRELIE SQUIRRELIEKIN. 

6. OLD RED REYNARD THE FOX. 

PROFUSELY ILLUSTRATED IN COLORS. 



PRICE, 50c. EACH 






















































































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